Wingles is a small town of nearly nine thousand people on the southern edge of the Lens coalfield, and its Cité de la Gare takes its name from the railway station that once carried coal away. This is the logistics of the mining basin laid bare: pit, rail, canal and village. The coal came up the shafts, was hauled to the sorting plants and loaded on trains that ran to the factories of the north and the ports of the Channel, while the people who dug it lived in neat brick rows within sight of the headframes.
The Cité de la Gare is one of the sites that make up the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Mining Basin, listed by UNESCO in 2012. Its houses are typical of the cités: terraced, built in brick, with small gardens, and arranged to be convenient for the railway and the pit. The company provided everything from schools to sports clubs, and loyalty was expected in return. The streets are quiet today, with bright shutters and flower boxes, and the neatness of the plan is still obvious.
Near Wingles stands one of the highest slag heaps in the basin, and the double cone of the terrils at Loos-en-Gohelle, which are the tallest in Europe, are a short ride away. You can climb them on foot, and the view from the top across the plain, with the old mining towns, wind turbines and church spires, is a good way to understand the scale of the old industry.
The ride is flat and the roads are straightforward, with long runs between brick villages. The surface can be rough after winter, and cobbled stretches appear on minor roads, particularly in the countryside around Lens and Béthune. In rain these can be slippery. Spring and autumn are comfortable, and summer is mild by southern standards, though showers are common.
Wingles has pumps, a few shops and cafés, with larger supermarkets on the road to Lens. Try the local beer and a plate of carbonnade in a village estaminet, and bring a waterproof, because the sky in the north can change quickly.