This was once a landscape of pits, headframes and long rows of brick miners' housing, and in 2012 the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin was added to the UNESCO list as a cultural landscape. The stadium or park in the label is part of that story in a quieter way, because company towns like Bruay built sports grounds, brass bands and parks for their workers, and the community life around a pit was as important as the pit itself.
The country is flat and open, but it is not dull if you look at it properly. The most striking features are the terrils, the conical or flat-topped slag heaps, some of which have been grassed over and planted with birch and now carry walking trails, while others still show black. From a high one you can see a dozen others on the horizon, like a landscape of small mountains made by hand. Nearby, the Louvre-Lens museum stands on a former pit site, and the vast Notre-Dame-de-Lorette cemetery on its ridge commemorates the First World War dead, with the Vimy Ridge memorial a short ride away.
Riding here is about atmosphere rather than corners. The roads are straight, lined with brick terraces, and in places the surface is the famous pavé, the cobbles that make the Paris-Roubaix cycle race so brutal. Take them slowly, especially in the wet, and keep your hands light on the bars. The northern French weather is changeable, with a sharp wind off the plain, and a grey day can make the brick glow red. Spring brings blossom along the canal banks, and autumn mist hangs over the fields.
Bruay-la-Buissière has about twenty-four thousand people, so there is no trouble with fuel and food, and the neighbouring town of Béthune is the bigger centre with a handsome Grand-Place and belfry that was rebuilt after the First World War. Try a plate of carbonnade flamande or a local maroilles cheese, with a glass of beer, in one of the straightforward brasseries, and give the old miners' cafes a go if you find one open.