For almost three centuries, coal shaped the land between Valenciennes and Béthune in northern France, creating a landscape of pits, slag heaps, railway lines and miners' housing estates. The Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2012, and the Cités de la Justice et du Moulin in Auby are part of it: rows of brick houses built by the mining companies to house their workers, with gardens, churches, schools and shops, all organised around the pit. The cités are still inhabited, so treat them as neighbourhoods rather than museums.
The mining landscape tells a story of hard work, solidarity and disaster. The Courrières mine disaster of 1906, a short distance from here, killed more than a thousand miners and remains the deadliest mining accident in European history. The region also drew workers from Poland, Italy, North Africa and elsewhere, and its culture reflects that mix, with Polish churches and associations still active in many towns.
Riding through the basin is not about scenery in the conventional sense, but there is a strange beauty in it. The slag heaps, some of them over a hundred metres high, have become green hills with walking trails and views, and those at Loos-en-Gohelle are among the highest in Europe. Roads are flat, busy and built-up, with lots of roundabouts, traffic lights and speed cameras. Cobbles appear on some village roads, especially toward Arenberg, famous from the Paris-Roubaix cycle race.
Auby, a town of almost eight thousand, has fuel and basic services, and Douai, a few kilometres away, has a beautiful belfry, a lively market and plenty of restaurants. Lens, nearby, is home to the Louvre-Lens, a branch of the Paris museum built on a former mine site. Try the local specialities, such as maroilles cheese, carbonade flamande or a welsh, a hot dish of cheddar melted with beer over bread and ham.