Why this ride
A 112 km round trip from Auchel - roughly 2 h in the saddle. The stops in between: Terril 32, Cité n°10 and back through Terril 32. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Bâtiment de la Goutte de Lait and Cité n°10
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 112 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 03
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Bâtiment de la Goutte de Lait
Mining companies in northern France did more than dig coal. They built housing, schools, churches, shops and clinics, so that workers' lives were shaped from birth to burial by the company, and the Goutte de Lait, the Drop of Milk, is a piece of that system. The name refers to the charitable clinics set up across France from the late nineteenth century to give mothers advice and clean milk for their babies, in an age when infant mortality was terrifying. In Auchel, the building belonged to the mining community, and it is listed as part of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin.
Read the complete Bâtiment de la Goutte de Lait write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Bâtiment de la Goutte de Lait is where the day begins. Next is Terril 32.
2. Terril 32
Out on the western fringe of the coal basin, where the mining country fades into the farmland of the Lys valley and the edge of the Artois hills, Terril 32 rises near Norrent-Fontes, Mametz and Thérouanne. This is the far end of the seam, a long way from the dense cités around Lens and Douai, and the countryside feels it: smaller villages, more fields, more trees, and pits that were fewer and further between. The heap stands almost like a lone hill above the cropland, a reminder that coal reached even here.
Read the complete Terril 32 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Terril 32 comes up about 15 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cité n°10.
3. Cité n°10
Sains-en-Gohelle is a former coal town in the heart of the Nord-Pas de Calais mining basin, and Cité n°10 is one of its old mining estates, rows of brick houses built for miners and their families around a pithead. The basin, which stretches about 120 kilometres from the Belgian border towards the west, was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012, and the cités, the slag heaps and the headframes are its most visible remains.
Read the complete Cité n°10 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 56 km into the recorded legs you reach Cité n°10. Next is back through Terril 32.
4. back through Terril 32
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Terril 32 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Terril 32, late in the day. Next is Bâtiment de la Goutte de Lait.
5. Bâtiment de la Goutte de Lait
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bâtiment de la Goutte de Lait write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Bâtiment de la Goutte de Lait. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Bâtiment de la Goutte de Lait to Terril 32
Bâtiment de la Goutte de Lait → Terril 32 is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Terril 32 to Cité n°10
Terril 32 → Cité n°10 is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité n°10 to back through Terril 32
Cité n°10 → back through Terril 32 is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Terril 32 to Bâtiment de la Goutte de Lait
back through Terril 32 → Bâtiment de la Goutte de Lait is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.