CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 271 km round trip from La Louvière - roughly 4 h 40 in the saddle. It goes by way of Château Dampierre, Stadhuis met Belfort and back through Château Dampierre. It crosses from Belgium into France - carry ID and check the toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
The coal that powered Belgium came from a ribbon of pits across Hainaut, and Bois-du-Luc is where the story is told best. The mining company here, the Societe de Bois-du-Luc, was founded in the late seventeenth century, making it one of the oldest in Europe, and it kept going until the pit closed in 1973. The site is now a museum and heritage centre, and it is listed by UNESCO as one of the Major Mining Sites of Wallonia, together with Grand-Hornu, Bois du Cazier and Blegny-Mine.
Read the complete Bois-du-Luc write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bois-du-Luc is where the day begins. Next is Château Dampierre.
Anzin, on the northern edge of Valenciennes, is where coal mining in northern France began on an industrial scale. In the eighteenth century, the Compagnie des mines d'Anzin became one of the largest companies in France, and its mines, workers' housing, slag heaps and buildings shaped the landscape of the region. Château Dampierre is one of the buildings linked to that history, and it is part of the UNESCO listing of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin, inscribed in 2012, which preserves more than a hundred sites across a vast area: pits, headframes, miners' cités, churches, schools and the great black spoil heaps known as terrils. The big miners' strike at Anzin in 1884 helped inspire Émile Zola's novel Germinal.
Read the complete Château Dampierre write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Château Dampierre comes up about 63 km into the recorded legs. Next is Stadhuis met Belfort.
Oudenaarde's town hall looks like something carved from lace. Built in the early sixteenth century in the late Gothic style, it has a facade covered with pointed arches, niches and statues, and a slender belfry topped with a gilded crown on which stands a small knight known locally as Hanske de Krijger, Little John the Warrior. The building is one of the finest of its kind in Flanders, and it is listed by UNESCO among the belfries of Belgium and France. Inside, there are displays of the tapestries for which Oudenaarde was famous across Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, especially its verdures, woven scenes of forests and greenery.
Read the complete Stadhuis met Belfort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 135 km into the recorded legs you reach Stadhuis met Belfort. Next is back through Château Dampierre.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Château Dampierre write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Château Dampierre, late in the day. Next is Bois-du-Luc.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bois-du-Luc write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Bois-du-Luc. That is the ride.
Bois-du-Luc → Château Dampierre is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Château Dampierre → Stadhuis met Belfort is 72 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Stadhuis met Belfort → back through Château Dampierre is 72 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Château Dampierre → Bois-du-Luc is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.