Why this ride
From Mazingarbe it runs 77 km to Mazingarbe; allow about 1 h 37 of riding. On the way it passes Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs, Terril 34 and back through Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur and Terril 34
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 77 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 37
- 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. Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur
Mining companies built for rank as well as for need. The ordinary miners got brick cottages in terraces, but the engineers and directors got something grander, detached houses with larger gardens and, for the top man, a house that was called a château and looked like one. Château Mercier at Mazingarbe belongs to that tradition, and the ride titles pair it with the engineers' houses. A walk through the old cité shows you the whole hierarchy of a company town in a few hundred metres, from the pit and the cottages to the engineers' row and the director's lawn. UNESCO's 2012 listing of the mining basin covers this social geography as much as the machinery.
Read the complete Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur is where the day begins. Next is Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs.
2. Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs
The coal companies were not short of optimism when they named their housing. In Bruay-la-Buissière, two neighbouring cités were called the New World and the Flowers, and their brick houses with front gardens, laid out along tidy streets, were meant to sell a better life to the families who came from across France, Poland, Italy and North Africa to work the pits. They belong to the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin World Heritage Site, and they remain ordinary homes, so look respectfully.
Read the complete Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs comes up about 18 km into the recorded legs. Next is Terril 34.
3. 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
about 38 km into the recorded legs you reach Terril 34. Next is back through Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs.
4. back through Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs, late in the day. Next is Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur.
5. Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur to Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs
Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur → Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs to Terril 34
Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs → Terril 34 is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Terril 34 to back through Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs
Terril 34 → back through Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs to Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur
back through Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs → Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.