Route nationale 2
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The Route nationale 2 (N2) is a route nationale in northern France.
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[edit] Route
Paris-Soissons-Laon-La Capelle-Belgium (N6)
[edit] History
The N2 was initially defined in 1811 as route impériale 2, running from Paris all the way to Amsterdam via Brussels, Antwerp, Breda and Utrecht. The territory north of the present border with Belgium was removed from France in the 1815 Congress of Vienna, and thus route 2 was truncated to that line. In 1824 it was renamed route royale 2, and in 1830 it became route nationale 2.
The former path to Amsterdam is now the N6 and N1 in Belgium and the N263 and unnumbered roads paralleling the A27 and A2 in the Netherlands.
[edit] Description of Route
[edit] Paris to Soisson (0km to 100km)
The RN2 starts at the Porte de la Villette in north west Paris. Called the Avenue Jean Jaurès to Le Bourget crossing the A86 autoroute and then A1 autoroute (Paris to Lille). The road passes the Aéroport de Paris-Bourget. Where it turns east leaving the N17. The road then crosses the A1 and A3 autoroute. The N2 merges with the A104 briefly as it passes south east of Aéroport de Paris-Charles de Gaulle. The original road ran through the airport site and is designated by the D902 to the south and D401 through Dammartin-en-Goële.
The road now by-passes many of the villages and small towns on the original route such as Nanteuil-le-Haudouin. The road then passes through the Foret de Retz. The road passes open country and war cemeteries to the town of Soissons on the river Aisne. The road crosses the N31 (Rouen to Reims.
[edit] Soisson to Laon (100km to 130km)
North of the town the countryside is more wooded the road passes the Monument des Copouillots. The road reaches the ridge on which the walled town of Laon sits. The road crosses the N44 (Reims to Cambrai).
[edit] Laon to Maubeuge (130km to 224km)
The road heads north east over the A26 autoroute (Calais to Troyes). The countryside is now flat and open. The road turns north after the small town of Verins. The road then crosses the upper reaches of the Oise. At La Capelle the road meets the N29 to Le Harve and the N43 (Calais to Metz). Nearby is the French football academy of Clairfontaine.
The countryside becomes more hilly on its way to Avesnes-s-Helpe. At Maubeuge the road crosses the river Sambre, and also the N49 (Valenciennes to Belgium). The road continues north to the frontier with Belgium and Mons becoming the N6. The route eventually reaches Brussels
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