Château Dampierre and Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Château Dampierre is where the day begins. Next is Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu.

2. 2. Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu

   Lourches is a small mining town in the Nord department, on the banks of the Escaut river, between Denain and Valenciennes, in the heart of the old coal mining basin that stretched across northern France. The memorial named after Charles Mathieu is one of the elements listed as part of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Mining Basin UNESCO site, alongside pitheads, slag heaps, miners' housing and the buildings of the mining companies.

   Read the complete Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu comes up about 14 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage.

3. 3. Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage

   Coal made this corner of northern France, and coal left it with a landscape unlike anywhere else in the country: slag heaps rising like black pyramids from the fields, pithead frames standing over old shafts and long rows of brick miners' houses lining the streets of every town. The Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin was listed by UNESCO in 2012, and the Cités du Champ Fleuri et du Garage, near Masny and Lewarde, are among its typical housing estates, built by mining companies to house workers and their families close to the pits.

   Read the complete Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 28 km into the recorded legs you reach Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage. Next is back through Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu.

4. 4. back through Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu, late in the day. Next is Château Dampierre.

5. 5. Château Dampierre

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Château Dampierre write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Château Dampierre. That is the ride.