Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras and Cité Foch

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras

   Arras has two great squares, the Grand-Place and the Place des Héros, surrounded by tall Flemish-baroque houses with curved gables and arcades, and towering above them is the belfry of the town hall, over seventy metres high. It looks medieval, but most of it is a careful reconstruction: Arras was devastated by German artillery during the First World War, when the front line ran just east of the town for years, and the belfry was destroyed in 1914. After the war, the people of Arras rebuilt it, along with the squares, and today it is one of the belfries of Belgium and France listed by UNESCO.

   Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras is where the day begins. Next is Paysage et ensemble miniers des Pinchonval.

2. 2. Paysage et ensemble miniers des Pinchonval

   The flat coalfield of northern France has one real hill near Liévin, and on top of it stand two tall white pylons carved with figures of grief. This is Vimy Ridge, taken by the Canadian Corps in April 1917, and the Canadian National Vimy Memorial looks out over the mining country below. Down on the plain, in Avion and Liévin, Pinchonval is a cité, a miners' housing estate of brick houses and gardens, and with dozens of other sites it makes up the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin, a World Heritage Site since 2012.

   Read the complete Paysage et ensemble miniers des Pinchonval write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Paysage et ensemble miniers des Pinchonval comes up about 16 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cité Foch.

3. 3. Cité Foch

   Row upon row of identical brick houses, each with its small garden, outbuilding and front door painted in the colour of the mining company: that is a cité minière, and Cité Foch, between Hénin-Beaumont and Montigny-en-Gohelle, is one of the many hundreds that the coal companies built across northern France. They were designed to house miners and their families close to the pits, and they came in different forms over the decades, from the long terraces of the nineteenth century, the corons, to the garden cities of the early twentieth century, with semi-detached houses, wide streets and green spaces. Many of these neighbourhoods are included in the UNESCO listing of the mining basin.

   Read the complete Cité Foch write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 31 km into the recorded legs you reach Cité Foch. Next is back through Paysage et ensemble miniers des Pinchonval.

4. 4. back through Paysage et ensemble miniers des Pinchonval

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Paysage et ensemble miniers des Pinchonval write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Paysage et ensemble miniers des Pinchonval, late in the day. Next is Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras.

5. 5. Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras. That is the ride.