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.
279 km from Armentières to Armentières, about 4 h 35 of riding. On the way it passes Camus Haut, Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage, Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e and Hôtel de ville. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Armentières is a textile town on the river Lys, right on the Belgian border, a quarter of an hour west of Lille. Its name is familiar to many English speakers from the bawdy marching song of the First World War, Mademoiselle from Armentières, which British soldiers sang on their way to the front lines nearby. The town paid a terrible price for being so close to that front: it was shelled, occupied and largely destroyed by 1918. The town hall and its belfry were rebuilt in the 1920s and 1930s in a confident Flemish style, and the tower now belongs to the UNESCO group of belfries of Belgium and France.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Armentières write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Armentières is where the day begins. Next is Camus Haut.
Camus Haut lies on the eastern edge of the mining basin, near Annay, Pont-à-Vendin and Harnes, where the canalised Deûle carries barges north towards Lille. The label refers to one of the many mining sites and cités of the area, and while the exact spot is hard to identify from a distance, the landscape tells you what kind of place it is: brick housing estates, old pit heads, spoil heaps going green, and the wide, flat horizon of the Gohelle.
Read the complete Camus Haut write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Camus Haut comes up about 43 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage.
Coal made this corner of northern France, and coal left it with a landscape unlike anywhere else in the country: slag heaps rising like black pyramids from the fields, pithead frames standing over old shafts and long rows of brick miners' houses lining the streets of every town. The Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin was listed by UNESCO in 2012, and the Cités du Champ Fleuri et du Garage, near Masny and Lewarde, are among its typical housing estates, built by mining companies to house workers and their families close to the pits.
Read the complete Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 76 km into the recorded legs you reach Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage. Next is Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e.
Estevelles is a small town where the mining basin meets the waterways of the Deûle, between Pont-à-Vendin and Carvin. The label points to one of the mining ensembles of the area, part of the UNESCO-listed basin: a pit, a cité, perhaps a spoil heap, all together telling the story of how coal shaped every aspect of local life. The mining companies built not only houses but churches, schools, health centres and gardens, controlling their workers' lives from cradle to grave. The cités around here, with their neat rows of brick houses and small vegetable gardens, still house many descendants of miners.
Read the complete Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e, about halfway. Next is Hôtel de ville.
Bruay-la-Buissière is a mining town that grew from almost nothing into a busy industrial centre in less than a century, and its town hall, an imposing building in the heart of town, is a statement of that civic pride. The label points to the Hôtel de ville, one of the many urban and public buildings of the mining era that are part of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin World Heritage site. It sits on the western end of the coalfield, where the plain begins to rise towards the chalk hills of Artois.
Read the complete Hôtel de ville write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hôtel de ville sits at 136 km, about halfway. Next is back through Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e comes up about 172 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 205 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage. Next is back through Camus Haut.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Camus Haut write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Camus Haut, late in the day. Next is Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Armentières.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Armentières write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 279 km.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Armentières → Camus Haut is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Camus Haut → Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage → Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e → Hôtel de ville is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hôtel de ville → back through Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e → back through Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage → back through Camus Haut is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Camus Haut → Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Armentières is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.