East of Douai, the Scarpe river winds through a green valley of marshes, woods and meadows, and rising out of it, near Pecquencourt and Lallaing, are the heaps numbered 143 and 143a, spoil from the mines that once operated here. Today they are part of the Scarpe-Escaut regional nature park and the World Heritage listing of the mining basin, and they are covered with trees and paths, home to birds and plants.
The area has a long history before the mines. At Pecquencourt, the ruins of the Benedictine Abbey of Anchin, founded in the eleventh century and once one of the richest in Flanders, stand near the Scarpe; little remains today but a tower and fragments. Douai, the nearby city, has a magnificent Gothic belfry, one of the belfries of Belgium and France listed as a World Heritage Site, and a carillon that plays regularly. Douai is also home to the Gayant giants, huge wicker figures paraded through the streets during the town's festival in summer.
The riding here is flat and gentle, with roads along the Scarpe and through the marshes and woods of the regional park. Traffic is moderate, and the roads are mostly good, with some cobbles in older streets. The landscape is greener than the western part of the mining basin, with canals, lakes and forests.
The marshes of the Scarpe are a fine place for birds: herons, grebes and marsh harriers over the reeds, kingfishers on the ditches, and in spring a loud chorus of frogs and warblers. Former subsidence ponds, created where the ground sank above old mine workings, have filled with water and become wetlands in their own right, so the mining past shaped even the nature you see.
Pecquencourt and Lallaing are small towns with basic services, and Douai, a few kilometres away, has everything. The local food includes dishes such as carbonade, potjevleesch and waffles, and the beer is excellent. The heaps can be climbed on paths for views over the valley and the surrounding landscape, and the nature park offers walking and cycling routes.