Roost-Warendin, Waziers and Râches sit just north of Douai, where the old Scarpe floodplain met the coal seams, and the Belleforière mining ensemble is one of the clusters that shows how a pit site was organised. Shafts, buildings, workers' housing and spoil heaps were laid out together, with the railway linking them all, and in a few places the ensemble survives well enough that you can read it on the ground. Part of the regional mining landscape listed by UNESCO in 2012, it is a good example of how coal companies planned whole villages around their extraction.
The countryside is damp and green. Before the mines, these were wetlands and woods; after them, subsidence created new ponds and marshes, and some former industrial land has been handed back to nature. You will see herons stalking the ditches, poplars lining the canals, and a lot of sky reflected in water. In late autumn the fog can settle in thick, and in summer the reeds hum with insects. The contrast between the brick terraces and this soft, wet landscape is part of the charm.
The road network is dense and slow, as it is throughout the urban part of the basin. You will move through a series of towns with roundabouts, traffic lights, speed bumps and parked cars, and a few cobbled stretches that are lethal in the rain. Head east toward the forests of Marchiennes and Saint-Amand for a greener ride with shaded straights and a few easy bends, or south into Douai for the city and its tall Gothic belfry. Traffic thins out on Sunday mornings, which is the best time to see the cités without competing with lorries.
Roost-Warendin and Waziers both have fuel, bakeries and supermarkets, and Douai offers cafés, brasseries and the full town experience a few minutes away. Walk a little way into the housing estates to notice how the company designs varied over the decades, from long uniform terraces to semi-detached houses with gardens, an evolution that reflects changing ideas about workers' welfare. Then pick a bar, order a coffee or a Picard beer for later, and enjoy the quiet rhythm of a place that has had more than its share of hard work.