In the footsteps of Marie Curie from De Panne to Poperinge

Did you know that the famous scientist Marie Curie was active here in West Flanders during WWI! With this motorcycle route you will visit some places where she gave her discoveries a practical application to help wounded soldiers. With her radiology equipment, Curie was able to see where bullets and scrapes were in the body and identify complex fractures. From December 1914, when she went to Veurne at the request of Frans Daels, Curie went on 45 missions. For thirty missions she rode to the front. Eleven times Curie went on a mission to the front lines on the Westhoek. Alexandre Millerand, the French Minister of War, ensured that Curie could reach the front lines with her radiology cars. For a woman to go so close to the fight was very unusual. The fact that this was a double Nobel Prize winner was completely unprecedented. Discover more of this region, period and of this remarkable woman through this bike tour.