Why this ride
288 km from Lille to Lille, about 4 h 46 of riding. The stops in between: Ensemble minier de la Belleforière, Cité du n°7 de Béthune, Terril 34 and Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Lille and Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 288 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 46
- 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 Lille
Lille's town hall belfry is a child of the twentieth century. After the old town hall was lost, the architect Émile Dubuisson built a new one in the 1920s and early 1930s in a working-class district south of the centre, and its belfry, rising about 104 metres, is the tallest civic belfry in Europe. Built of reinforced concrete and brick in an Art Deco reinterpretation of the Flemish tradition, it is part of the UNESCO-listed Belfries of Belgium and France, a group that celebrates the towers built by towns to symbolise their freedom and civic pride.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Lille 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 Lille is where the day begins. Next is Ensemble minier de la Belleforière.
2. Ensemble minier de la Belleforière
Roost-Warendin, Waziers and Râches sit just north of Douai, where the old Scarpe floodplain met the coal seams, and the Belleforière mining ensemble is one of the clusters that shows how a pit site was organised. Shafts, buildings, workers' housing and spoil heaps were laid out together, with the railway linking them all, and in a few places the ensemble survives well enough that you can read it on the ground. Part of the regional mining landscape listed by UNESCO in 2012, it is a good example of how coal companies planned whole villages around their extraction.
Read the complete Ensemble minier de la Belleforière write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Ensemble minier de la Belleforière comes up about 40 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cité du n°7 de Béthune.
3. Cité du n°7 de Béthune
Between Grenay, Mazingarbe and Vermelles, in the heart of the Gohelle, the Cité du n°7 is one of the mining villages built by the Compagnie des mines de Béthune for the workers of its pit number 7. The houses, laid out in tidy rows with gardens, still form a coherent neighbourhood, part of the UNESCO-listed mining basin. Each company built its cités in its own style, and the variety of brick patterns, porches and layouts is surprisingly rich once you start looking.
Read the complete Cité du n°7 de Béthune write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 71 km into the recorded legs you reach Cité du n°7 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 Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin.
5. Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin
Hesdin is a small market town in the green valley of the Canche, in the Pas-de-Calais, and it owes its existence to an act of destruction. The original town, a few kilometres upstream, was razed in 1553 by the forces of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, and a new fortified town was built here the following year as a strongpoint on the frontier between France and the Habsburg Netherlands. The grid of streets and the large market square still follow that plan. On the square stands the town hall, a former palace of the Habsburg governors, with a beautifully carved Renaissance balcony from which proclamations were read, and its belfry is part of the UNESCO list of belfries in Belgium and France.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin 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’Hesdin sits at 151 km, about halfway. Next is back through Terril 34.
6. back through Terril 34
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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
back through Terril 34 comes up about 179 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Cité du n°7 de Béthune.
7. back through Cité du n°7 de Béthune
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité du n°7 de Béthune write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 216 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Cité du n°7 de Béthune. Next is back through Ensemble minier de la Belleforière.
8. back through Ensemble minier de la Belleforière
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ensemble minier de la Belleforière write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Ensemble minier de la Belleforière, late in the day. Next is Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Lille.
9. Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Lille
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Lille write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 288 km.
Leg by leg
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Lille to Ensemble minier de la Belleforière
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Lille → Ensemble minier de la Belleforière is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ensemble minier de la Belleforière to Cité du n°7 de Béthune
Ensemble minier de la Belleforière → Cité du n°7 de Béthune is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité du n°7 de Béthune to Terril 34
Cité du n°7 de Béthune → Terril 34 is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Terril 34 to Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin
Terril 34 → Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin to back through Terril 34
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin → back through Terril 34 is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Terril 34 to back through Cité du n°7 de Béthune
back through Terril 34 → back through Cité du n°7 de Béthune is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cité du n°7 de Béthune to back through Ensemble minier de la Belleforière
back through Cité du n°7 de Béthune → back through Ensemble minier de la Belleforière is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ensemble minier de la Belleforière to Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Lille
back through Ensemble minier de la Belleforière → Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Lille is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.