Dourges sits between Lens and Douai, in the very middle of the old coal basin, and the Cité Bruno is one of the rows of brick homes the mining company put up for its workers. What stays with you is the quiet. A district that once lay under smoke now has pigeons on the roofs, bicycles against the walls and hedges clipped square, and the street plan, with its straight lines and identical frontages, makes it feel like a stage set for a very ordinary life. Château Dampierre, the name that goes with this stop, is a reminder that the land around here also belonged to owners and gentry long before the pits, so there is a country-house layer under the industrial one.
The Dourges company was a major name in the basin, and its shafts fed the furnaces and factories of the Nord. Hedged inside the industrial belt nearby, at Noyelles-Godault, was a huge lead and zinc smelter, closed in the early 2000s, whose soils still worry the local authorities. The terrils around Dourges, by contrast, have become something close to nature reserves, with birch, gorse and rare birds colonising the dark slopes, and some of them now have trails you can follow for the view.
On a motorcycle, this is the least dramatic kind of riding, and also an odd kind of pleasure. The roads are long and straight, interrupted by level crossings and roundabouts, and there is a constant rhythm of brick, hedge and brick. Narrow lanes between the villages are patched and become greasy in rain. The main road between Lens and Douai clogs at rush hour, so avoid it if you can and take the back streets, slowly, in the early morning or on a Sunday.
Dourges is small and has a bakery and a few cafes, while fuel is in the neighbouring towns, and Lens and Douai offer everything you could want. Autumn is kind: mist hangs on the fields and the terrils look like natural hills.