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.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 298 km round trip from Béthune - roughly 4 h 32 in the saddle. The stops in between: Fosse n°13 bis, La citadella d’Arras, Cités de la Clochette et Notre-Dame and Chevalement de la fosse Dutemple. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
The ride follows La citadella d’Arras → Cités de la Clochette et Notre-Dame for 31 km.
The belfry of Béthune has been standing in the middle of the Grand Place since the fourteenth century, and it has survived more than most of the buildings around it. In 1918 the town centre was almost completely destroyed by German shelling, and the square was rebuilt in the 1920s in a mix of Flemish and Art Deco styles, with tall, ornate façades in brick and stone around the old tower. The belfry, a symbol of the town's ancient freedoms, is part of the UNESCO listing of belfries of Belgium and France, and climbing its stairs gives a fine view over the rooftops and the flat land around.
Read the complete Beffroi de Béthune write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Beffroi de Béthune is where the day begins. 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 comes up about 40 km into the recorded legs. Next is La citadella d’Arras.
The people of Arras call their citadel la belle inutile, the beautiful useless one, and they say it with affection. Vauban built it in the late seventeenth century, after Louis XIV took Artois from Spain, as part of the chain of fortresses meant to lock France's northern border. Its star-shaped ramparts, bastions and moats are textbook Vauban, but the border moved north before the fortress ever saw a serious siege, hence the nickname. It is one of the twelve sites grouped as the Fortifications of Vauban on the UNESCO list since 2008. Its later history is darker: during the Second World War, the Germans executed resistance fighters in the moat, and a memorial there lists their names.
Read the complete La citadella d’Arras write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 76 km into the recorded legs you reach La citadella d’Arras. Next is Cités de la Clochette et Notre-Dame.
Douai is a handsome old town on the river Scarpe, and its belfry is the thing to look for. The tall Gothic tower, topped with a lion, rises above the town hall and holds a carillon of bells, and it is one of the belfries of Belgium and France that UNESCO listed together. Every July the town stages a big parade of giants, huge wicker figures carried through the streets that represent Gayant, a giant from local legend, with his wife and children, a tradition that dates back centuries and which UNESCO recognises as intangible heritage. The Chartreuse museum, in a former monastery, holds paintings and sculpture from the town's long history.
Read the complete Cités de la Clochette et Notre-Dame write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cités de la Clochette et Notre-Dame, about halfway. Next is Chevalement de la fosse Dutemple.
A steel tower with a big wheel at the top: once you have seen one headframe, you start to spot them all across the north of France, but each one marks a place where men went down into the dark. The headframe of the Fosse Dutemple, between Valenciennes and Petite-Forêt, is one of the survivors, kept as part of the UNESCO-listed Nord-Pas de Calais mining basin. Under it, cages once dropped miners hundreds of metres to the coal seams; now it stands as a monument, its pulleys still against the sky.
Read the complete Chevalement de la fosse Dutemple write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chevalement de la fosse Dutemple sits at 143 km, about halfway. Next is back through Cités de la Clochette et Notre-Dame.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cités de la Clochette et Notre-Dame write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cités de la Clochette et Notre-Dame comes up about 187 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through La citadella d’Arras.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete La citadella d’Arras write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 218 km into the recorded legs you reach back through La citadella d’Arras. Next is back through Fosse n°13 bis.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fosse n°13 bis write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fosse n°13 bis, late in the day. Next is Beffroi de Béthune.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Beffroi de Béthune write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 298 km.
Beffroi de Béthune → Fosse n°13 bis is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fosse n°13 bis → La citadella d’Arras is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
La citadella d’Arras → Cités de la Clochette et Notre-Dame is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cités de la Clochette et Notre-Dame → Chevalement de la fosse Dutemple is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chevalement de la fosse Dutemple → back through Cités de la Clochette et Notre-Dame is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cités de la Clochette et Notre-Dame → back through La citadella d’Arras is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through La citadella d’Arras → back through Fosse n°13 bis is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fosse n°13 bis → Beffroi de Béthune is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.