Why this ride
A 270 km round trip from Rue - roughly 4 h 53 in the saddle. The stops in between: Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin, Terril 244, Cité des Soeurs and Terrils 87 et 92. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Beffroi de Rue and Terrils 87 et 92
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 270 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 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 Rue
Rue is a small town of three thousand people that used to be a seaport, and the belfry in the middle of it is one of the reasons it still feels more important than its size suggests. Over centuries the Baie de Somme silted up and the sea pulled back, leaving Rue stranded a few kilometres inland among salt meadows and polders, but the stone tower that once watched the harbour still stands over the square. It is part of the group of belfries of Belgium and northern France on the UNESCO list, symbols of civic freedom built by towns that wanted the world to know they governed themselves.
Read the complete Beffroi de Rue write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Beffroi de Rue is where the day begins. Next is Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin.
2. 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 comes up about 39 km into the recorded legs. Next is Terril 244.
3. Terril 244
Way out at the western tip of the coalfield, near the villages of Mametz and Norrent-Fontes, Terril 244 marks the place where coal mining reached its limit. Beyond it, the land belongs to farmers, and the next towns, Aire-sur-la-Lys and Saint-Omer, have more to do with canals, marshes and markets than with mines. The heap stands as a solitary landmark in the fields, smaller than the giants further east, and its green-covered slopes blend into the landscape. It is one of the outlying components of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin listed by UNESCO, a reminder that the coalfield stretched for over a hundred kilometres from the Belgian border to here.
Read the complete Terril 244 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 73 km into the recorded legs you reach Terril 244. Next is Cité des Soeurs.
4. Cité des Soeurs
At the western edge of the coalfield, where the plain of the mining basin starts to buckle into the chalk hills of Artois, the town of Barlin grew up around its pits. The Cité des Soeurs is one of its housing estates, rows of brick miners' houses with gardens, and Terril 244, a slag heap now furred with trees, stands nearby like a man-made hill. Both belong to the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin World Heritage Site, which covers more than a hundred kilometres of coal country from the Belgian border westwards.
Read the complete Cité des Soeurs write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cité des Soeurs, about halfway. Next is Terrils 87 et 92.
5. Terrils 87 et 92
From a distance they look like hills, which in this flat country is reason enough to stare. The terrils numbered 87 and 92, on the edge of Noyelles-Godault and Dourges next to Hénin-Beaumont, are spoil heaps from the coal mines of the Nord-Pas de Calais basin, made of the shale and rock that came up with the coal over a century and more of mining. They are part of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin, inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2012 as a whole cultural landscape: pits, headframes, miners' housing, schools, churches and these artificial black mountains, more than a hundred of which are protected.
Read the complete Terrils 87 et 92 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Terrils 87 et 92 sits at 150 km, about halfway. Next is back through Cité des Soeurs.
6. back through Cité des Soeurs
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité des Soeurs write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Cité des Soeurs comes up about 169 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Terril 244.
7. back through Terril 244
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Terril 244 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 202 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Terril 244. Next is back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin.
8. back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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
back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin, late in the day. Next is Beffroi de Rue.
9. Beffroi de Rue
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Beffroi de Rue 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 270 km.
Leg by leg
Beffroi de Rue to Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin
Beffroi de Rue → Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin to Terril 244
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin → Terril 244 is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Terril 244 to Cité des Soeurs
Terril 244 → Cité des Soeurs is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité des Soeurs to Terrils 87 et 92
Cité des Soeurs → Terrils 87 et 92 is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Terrils 87 et 92 to back through Cité des Soeurs
Terrils 87 et 92 → back through Cité des Soeurs is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cité des Soeurs to back through Terril 244
back through Cité des Soeurs → back through Terril 244 is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Terril 244 to back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin
back through Terril 244 → back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin to Beffroi de Rue
back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin → Beffroi de Rue is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.