South of Bruay-la-Buissière the land stops being a miners' plain and starts to feel like Artois, with small rivers, wooded valleys and the first rolling hills. It is the sort of cité that you come across by accident, a cluster of brick houses with gardens, set a little apart from the village, built for the Compagnie des mines de Béthune or one of its neighbours. UNESCO's 2012 listing included many of these, and each has a slightly different plan.
Gosnay itself has a long history that has nothing to do with coal. A Carthusian monastery, the Chartreuse, was founded in the area in the Middle Ages, which gives the village a quiet, almost cloistered character. Nearby is the valley of the Clarence river, a small stream that wanders through meadows and woodland on its way to join the Lys, and a few farms still keep cattle on the wet ground.
The riding is the best of the day in this part of the basin. The roads around Gosnay and Labeuvrière wind gently through hedged fields and beech woods, with surfaces that are mostly smooth and traffic that is light. The slag heaps appear on the horizon like green pyramids, and the old railway lines have become cycle paths. In spring the hedgerows are in blossom, and in autumn the leaves lie wet on the corners. Morning mist is common, and the light in the evening makes the brickwork glow.
Gosnay has around twelve hundred inhabitants and Labeuvrière not many more, so do not count on a pump in the villages. Bruay-la-Buissière, three kilometres away, has twenty-four thousand people and all the services you could want, and Béthune is a short run further north. After a loop through the lanes, stop in Bruay for a coffee and a pastry from one of the bakeries.