Why this ride
A 153 km round trip from Douai - roughly 2 h 53 in the saddle. The stops in between: Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi, Beffroi de Béthune, Terril 34 and back through Beffroi de Béthune. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Douai and Terril 34
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 153 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 53
- 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 de Douai
The belfry of Douai rises above the town hall like a stone exclamation mark, a tall, square tower with a corner turret and a gilded lion at the top. Belfries were the symbols of medieval towns in Flanders and northern France, built to show that a town had won its freedoms, and to hold the bell that called citizens to meet, fight or put out fires. Douai's was begun in the fourteenth century and finished in the fifteenth, and it is one of the group of belfries of Belgium and France that UNESCO lists together.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Douai 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 de Douai is where the day begins. Next is Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi.
2. Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi
Flat country hides its stories well, and the strip of land around Vendin-le-Vieil, Pont-à-Vendin and Annay looks at first like any other piece of French Flanders suburbia: rows of brick houses, a canal, a few fields, a tangle of roads. Look again and the pattern reveals itself. The terraced streets are company housing, laid out by mining firms for their workers, and the low hills on the horizon are not hills at all but spoil heaps from the pits that once ran under this ground. The whole Nord-Pas de Calais coal basin was listed by UNESCO in 2012 as a living cultural landscape, and the area around Auchy-les-Mines and its neighbours is part of that long chain of pits, cités and terrils stretching across the north of France.
Read the complete Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi 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 d’Auchy-les-Mi comes up about 23 km into the recorded legs. Next is Beffroi de Béthune.
3. Beffroi de Béthune
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.
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 Beffroi de Béthune. Next is Terril 34.
4. Terril 34
A terril is a slag heap, a mountain of waste rock dumped beside a coal mine, and in the flat land of northern France these man-made hills are the closest thing to relief for miles around. Terril 34 is one of hundreds that dot the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Mining Basin, a UNESCO site since 2012, which recognises not only the heaps but also the pithead frames, miners' housing estates, schools, churches and railway lines that made up the landscape of coal mining in the region for nearly three centuries. This one sits near Norrent-Fontes and Lillers, at the western end of the basin, where it meets the chalk hills of Artois.
Read the complete Terril 34 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Terril 34, about halfway. Next is back through Beffroi de Béthune.
5. back through Beffroi de Béthune
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Beffroi de Béthune write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Beffroi de Béthune sits at 102 km, about halfway. Next is back through Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi.
6. back through Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi 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 d’Auchy-les-Mi comes up about 131 km into the recorded legs. Next is Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Douai.
7. Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Douai
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Douai 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 de Douai closes the day.
Leg by leg
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Douai to Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Douai → Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi to Beffroi de Béthune
Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi → Beffroi de Béthune is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de Béthune to Terril 34
Beffroi de Béthune → Terril 34 is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Terril 34 to back through Beffroi de Béthune
Terril 34 → back through Beffroi de Béthune is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Beffroi de Béthune to back through Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi
back through Beffroi de Béthune → back through Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi to Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Douai
back through Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi → Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Douai is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.