At the western edge of the coalfield, where the plain of the mining basin starts to buckle into the chalk hills of Artois, the town of Barlin grew up around its pits. The Cité des Soeurs is one of its housing estates, rows of brick miners' houses with gardens, and Terril 244, a slag heap now furred with trees, stands nearby like a man-made hill. Both belong to the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin World Heritage Site, which covers more than a hundred kilometres of coal country from the Belgian border westwards.
What is striking in a cité like this is the sense of a planned world. The company decided where people lived, where their children went to school, where they prayed and often where they shopped, and the layout of the streets still reflects that order. The houses were rented to mining families, and many residents today are descendants of miners who came from across France and from Poland, Italy, Belgium and North Africa.
The region's character is strong and warm. People speak French with the local Picard flavour known as ch'ti, brass bands and choirs grew up around the pits, pigeon fanciers still race their birds, and the friterie and the local café remain institutions. The slag heaps, once black and bare, have become green hills where walkers, botanists and even vineyards have moved in; some terrils have trails to the top with views over the whole basin.
Barlin itself is for practical stops. The interesting riding lies west and south, where the roads climb into the Artois hills: quiet lanes between fields of wheat, beet and flax, small brick villages, and valleys like those of the Ternoise and the Canche running towards the coast. They are not dramatic, but they are pleasant, with gentle bends, little traffic and big skies. Expect wind, showers and the occasional tractor shedding mud.
Barlin has fuel, a supermarket and simple places to eat. If you want the full story of the coalfield, the Centre Historique Minier at Lewarde, east of Douai, has underground galleries and the best displays in the region, and it is worth the hour's ride.