Oignies is a small town in the Pas-de-Calais, at the edge of the old coal basin near the border with the Nord, with a monument at its heart to the people who lived and died by the pits.
Oignies was where coal mining in the region ended. The last working pit of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais basin, Fosse 9-9 bis, closed in December 1990, ending almost two centuries of mining here. The buildings, red-brick sheds and a headframe, were kept, and the site has been reinvented as a centre for music and culture, with concerts in the old pit sheds. Two great slag heaps rise behind it, twin cones planted with trees and open to walkers. Nearby Courrières, three kilometres away, was the scene of the great explosion of March 1906, which killed nearly eleven hundred men and boys, and the memorial there is a moving place to stop. Émile Basly, the miners' leader named in the label of this ride, was born in 1854, worked as a miner, became a union organiser and later the mayor of Lens, and is remembered across the district.
On a motorcycle, the country is flat and the roads are straight, with many roundabouts, level crossings and stretches of old setts that can be slippery in wet weather. Industrial buildings, canals and new warehouses alternate with fields of sugar beet and wheat, and the horizon is broken by terrils with silver birch and pine. It is not a landscape for corner-hunters, but it has a character you cannot find elsewhere in France. In winter, the days are short and the sky heavy, and the best time to visit is late spring or September.
Oignies has ten thousand people, with fuel, bakeries and a supermarket, and Libercourt and Courrières are close by if you need more. For food, try a plate of frites with a fricadelle, the local sausage, and a glass of local beer. The cafes are friendly, and the old miners' cités nearby offer a gentle walk on a quiet afternoon.