The Cité de la Solitude sounds like the name of a novel, but it is a real miners' housing estate in the far east of the French coalfield, near Vieux-Condé and Condé-sur-l'Escaut, within a few kilometres of the Belgian border. Here the mining basin merges into the Hainaut country on the other side, and the two halves share a single history of coal, iron and hard work. The French basin was listed by UNESCO in 2012, and on the Belgian side the major mining sites of Wallonia, including the Grand-Hornu and the Bois-du-Cazier, were listed in the same year. The Beffroi de Thuin, in the Belgian town of Thuin, is one of several belfries in the region recognised by UNESCO as symbols of civic pride.
A cité is a planned estate of brick houses built by mining companies, often arranged in tidy rows with gardens, a school and a church, and the best preserved ones feel like small, self-contained towns. They are low, uniform and warmly red, with slate roofs and chimneys, and they say a great deal about how the companies thought about their workers. Riding through them is a slow, quiet affair, on streets that are narrow, sometimes cobbled and often lined with parked cars.
The surrounding country is flat, with the River Scheldt, called the Escaut here, meandering through canals and meadows. Roads are straight and the traffic is moderate, though the border area is busy with commuters. Weather is changeable and often grey, so take rain gear. In autumn the mist hangs low over the fields, and the terrils, now wooded, stand out like dark islands.
Vieux-Condé and Condé-sur-l'Escaut, each with over ten thousand people, have fuel, bakeries and cafes, and Valenciennes is not far. Cross into Belgium and you reach Mons, a short ride away, where the beer and the frites are excellent and the border check is nothing more than a change of road signs. If you like industrial heritage, the contrast between the two sides of the border makes a rewarding day.