Estevelles is a small town where the mining basin meets the waterways of the Deûle, between Pont-à-Vendin and Carvin. The label points to one of the mining ensembles of the area, part of the UNESCO-listed basin: a pit, a cité, perhaps a spoil heap, all together telling the story of how coal shaped every aspect of local life. The mining companies built not only houses but churches, schools, health centres and gardens, controlling their workers' lives from cradle to grave. The cités around here, with their neat rows of brick houses and small vegetable gardens, still house many descendants of miners.
The Deûle canal is the backbone of the area. It links the mining basin to Lille and to the Belgian waterways, and in the heyday of coal, barges loaded with coal left from the quays every day. The canal still carries freight, and its banks are now used by cyclists and walkers.
Lens, the former capital of the basin, is a short ride away, and it has two things worth knowing about. The first is the Louvre-Lens, opened in 2012, a long, low, luminous building on the site of an old pit, where the Galerie du Temps displays works from the Louvre's collections in chronological order, from antiquity to the nineteenth century. Its light-filled halls are a striking contrast to the industrial landscape outside. The second is Racing Club de Lens, whose Stade Bollaert-Delelis is one of the most passionate football grounds in France. On match days, the whole town wears the club's red and gold colours, the sang et or, and the atmosphere is extraordinary.
The riding is mostly through towns and suburbs, with frequent roundabouts, traffic lights and speed bumps. The roads along the canal are flatter and quieter. Beware of cobblestones in some old streets, and of the slick surface after rain. The wind blows across the plain with nothing to stop it.
Estevelles and Pont-à-Vendin have fuel and bakeries, and Lens has every service. For a meal, try a local brasserie: the north is beer country, and many dishes are cooked with beer, from carbonade to waterzooi. If you are here on a match day, expect the roads near Lens to be jammed.