CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
138 km from Lille to Lille, about 3 h 01 of riding. On the way it passes Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Comines, Hôtel de ville, Paysage et ensemble miniers de Libercourt and Fosse n°13 bis. It crosses from France into Belgium - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules.
Lille is a Flemish city that happens to be in France, and its brick and gables show it. The Grand'Place, with its tall merchants' houses and a theatre that looks like a wedding cake, is the centre of a lively old town of cobbled streets, and the nearby Vieille Bourse, the old stock exchange, is a courtyard of carved stone where secondhand-book sellers set out their stalls. The citadel, built by Vauban for Louis XIV, still stands to the west, a star-shaped fortress inside a park.
Read the complete Lille write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Lille is where the day begins. Next is Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Comines.
Comines is one of those towns the border runs straight through. The river Lys, the Leie to the Flemish, divides French Comines from Belgian Comines-Warneton, and you can cross from one country to the other on a bridge without noticing much more than a change in the shape of the street signs. On the French side the town hall and its belfry stand over the main square, a tall brick tower in the Flemish style with a pointed roof and a carillon, part of the group of belfries of Belgium and France listed by UNESCO.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Comines write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Comines comes up about 22 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hôtel de ville.
A town hall makes an odd target for a ride, but Carvin's is a good excuse to stop in a place most people only see from the A1. The town sits on the northern edge of the old coalfield, between Lens and Lille, and its civic buildings and squares reflect the confidence of a community that grew with the mines. Like many such places, Carvin's centre is a mix of brick, stone and post-war rebuilding, and the town hall faces a square with cafés, bakeries and a market on certain days.
Read the complete Hôtel de ville write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
At least about 63 km into the recorded legs you reach Hôtel de ville. Next is Paysage et ensemble miniers de Libercourt.
Libercourt is a young town by French standards. It grew in the early twentieth century around a coal company's pits and a railway line, on land that had been farm and marsh, and the planners laid it out from scratch, with straight streets, a station and cités of brick cottages in tidy rows. Many of the miners who filled them came from Poland, recruited in large numbers between the wars, and Polish names, church services and recipes marked the mining villages of the north for generations.
Read the complete Paysage et ensemble miniers de Libercourt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Paysage et ensemble miniers de Libercourt, about halfway. Next is Fosse n°13 bis.
Oignies holds a special place in the story of French coal, because it was the last place in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais where a pit closed. The final coal came up at Oignies in December 1990, ending nearly three centuries of mining in the basin, and the old pit buildings there have since been turned into a concert hall and cultural centre. Fosse 13 bis, a few kilometres off, belonged to the Compagnie des mines de Courrières, one of the great names of the coalfield, and the whole district falls inside the Mining Basin World Heritage Site that UNESCO recognised in 2012.
Read the complete Fosse n°13 bis write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fosse n°13 bis sits at 67 km, about halfway. Next is back through Paysage et ensemble miniers de Libercourt.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Paysage et ensemble miniers de Libercourt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Paysage et ensemble miniers de Libercourt comes up about 73 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Hôtel de ville.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hôtel de ville write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 77 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Hôtel de ville. Next is back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Comines.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Comines write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Comines, late in the day. Next is Lille.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Lille write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 138 km.
Lille → Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Comines is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Comines → Hôtel de ville is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hôtel de ville → Paysage et ensemble miniers de Libercourt is 4 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Paysage et ensemble miniers de Libercourt → back through Hôtel de ville is 4 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hôtel de ville → back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Comines is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Comines → Lille is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.