In the mining towns of northern France, the companies built not only pits and houses but whole communities, with churches, schools, dispensaries and, after the First World War, monuments to the dead. This war memorial and the iron gates of a mining cité in Mazingarbe are small parts of that story, included in the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin World Heritage site. They stand among rows of brick houses, gardens and allotments in a town shaped by coal.
The landscape around Mazingarbe is dominated by two huge black cones: the twin terrils of Loos-en-Gohelle, spoil heaps from the 11/19 pit that rise to over 180 metres above the plain, among the highest in Europe. You can climb one of them for a view over the whole mining basin, with its towns, pit heads and fields stretching to the horizon. The 11/19 site itself is now a centre for culture and sustainable development, with a theatre and offices in the old buildings.
This area was also on the front line during the First World War. The Battle of Loos in September 1915 was one of the major British offensives of 1915, and the first time the British army used poison gas. Thousands of soldiers died in the fields around here, and cemeteries and memorials dot the landscape, including the Dud Corner Cemetery and the Loos Memorial, which lists over twenty thousand names of men with no known grave.
The riding is flat and industrial, with busy roads, roundabouts and towns that blend into each other. The A21 motorway runs nearby, but the local roads are more interesting, through mining towns and past terrils and memorials. Cobbles appear in places, so be careful in the wet. The area is not about scenery in the conventional sense, but about history and atmosphere.
Mazingarbe, about a kilometre and a half away, has fuel and basic services. Bully-les-Mines, Lens and Béthune are nearby, with more options. Lens is home to the Louvre-Lens museum, built on the site of a former pit, a striking modern building with an outstanding collection. Try the local frites from a friterie, served with a variety of sauces, or a hearty potjevleesch, a terrine of meats in jelly.