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: 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.
From Fresnes-sur-Escaut it runs 262 km to Fresnes-sur-Escaut; allow about 3 h 49 of riding. On the way it passes Paysage et ensemble miniers de Drocourt, Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Aire-sur-la and back through Paysage et ensemble miniers de Drocourt. The line favours views over speed.
Customs officers and smugglers have been playing the same game along the northern border for centuries, and Fresnes-sur-Escaut sits right on the line. The little town of seven and a half thousand people lies on the French bank of the river Escaut, a few kilometres from Belgium, in the country that was once part of the Spanish Netherlands and later the heart of the Anzin coalfield. The Château des Douaniers recalls the border guards who watched the lanes and the river for contraband, and the frontier traffic in coffee, tobacco, butter and spirits was an economic force for generations.
Read the complete Château des Douaniers write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Château des Douaniers is where the day begins. Next is Paysage et ensemble miniers de Drocourt.
Drocourt lies in the middle of the basin, between Lens and Douai, and its landscape tells the story of coal on a human scale. The pit-head frames and brick buildings of the old shafts, the spoil heaps sprouting trees and the long rows of miners' houses lie almost within sight of one another, and together they are listed as part of the UNESCO Mining Basin. Nearby is the old pumping house at the Sarteau shaft, a reminder that water was always the miners' enemy, and that huge machines had to keep the workings dry day and night.
Read the complete Paysage et ensemble miniers de Drocourt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Paysage et ensemble miniers de Drocourt comes up about 72 km into the recorded legs. Next is Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Aire-sur-la-.
Aire-sur-la-Lys is the kind of small French town that rewards a slow walk with no plan. Its belfry rises from the eighteenth-century town hall on the Grand Place, an elegant classical building topped by a tall tower with a lantern and a carillon, and it is part of the UNESCO listing of belfries of Belgium and France. Across the square stands the Bailliage, a richly decorated Renaissance building from around 1600, with arches, carved figures and a little loggia, which once housed the guard and the town's officials. A few streets away, the great collegiate church of Saint-Pierre, built in a flamboyant Gothic style, rises above the rooftops.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Aire-sur-la- write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 131 km into the recorded legs you reach Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Aire-sur-la-. Next is back through Paysage et ensemble miniers de Drocourt.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Paysage et ensemble miniers de Drocourt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Paysage et ensemble miniers de Drocourt, late in the day. Next is Château des Douaniers.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Château des Douaniers write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Château des Douaniers. That is the ride.
Château des Douaniers → Paysage et ensemble miniers de Drocourt is 72 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Paysage et ensemble miniers de Drocourt → Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Aire-sur-la- is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Aire-sur-la- → back through Paysage et ensemble miniers de Drocourt is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Paysage et ensemble miniers de Drocourt → Château des Douaniers is 72 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.