Why this ride
A 153 km round trip from Arras - roughly 2 h 30 in the saddle. On the way it passes Cité n°10, Cité de Rimbert, Cité n°2 and back through Cité de Rimbert.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras and Cité n°2
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 153 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 30
- 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. 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 Cité n°10.
2. 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
Cité n°10 comes up about 24 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cité de Rimbert.
3. Cité de Rimbert
West of Béthune, the coalfield starts to run out of flat land. The first chalk hills of Artois rise around Auchel and Cauchy-à-la-Tour, and the pit villages climb their slopes in neat rows of brick. The Cité de Rimbert is one of these, built by the mining company of Marles to house its workers, and it belongs to the long necklace of sites in the UNESCO-listed mining basin. Its houses, gardens and straight streets are a textbook example of company planning, with every family given a home, a vegetable plot and a short walk to the pit.
Read the complete Cité de Rimbert write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 48 km into the recorded legs you reach Cité de Rimbert. Next is Cité n°2.
4. Cité n°2
Mazingarbe is a small town on the northern edge of the mining basin, with the terraced rows of a miners' cité running down streets of red brick, and nearly twelve thousand people live in neighbouring Bully-les-Mines. The Cité Foch and the Cité Bellevue are two of the estates that mark this stretch of the basin on the map. The cité, built by the coal company for its workers, usually came with a school, a church, a company shop and a community hall, so that the pit shaped a whole life.
Read the complete Cité n°2 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cité n°2, about halfway. Next is back through Cité de Rimbert.
5. back through Cité de Rimbert
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité de Rimbert write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Cité de Rimbert sits at 100 km, about halfway. Next is back through Cité n°10.
6. back through Cité n°10
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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
back through Cité n°10 comes up about 128 km into the recorded legs. Next is Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras.
7. 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
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras closes the day.
Leg by leg
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras to Cité n°10
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras → Cité n°10 is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité n°10 to Cité de Rimbert
Cité n°10 → Cité de Rimbert is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité de Rimbert to Cité n°2
Cité de Rimbert → Cité n°2 is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité n°2 to back through Cité de Rimbert
Cité n°2 → back through Cité de Rimbert is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cité de Rimbert to back through Cité n°10
back through Cité de Rimbert → back through Cité n°10 is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cité n°10 to Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras
back through Cité n°10 → Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.