Why this ride
146 km from Liévin to Liévin, about 2 h 39 of riding. It goes by way of Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7, Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune, Cité du Moulin and Terril 140.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Chevalement du n°1 bis de Liévin and Terril 140
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 146 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 39
- 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. Chevalement du n°1 bis de Liévin
Number 1 bis at Liévin was one of the shafts of the old Compagnie des mines de Liévin, and its headframe still stands, a lean tower against a sky that is often low and grey. It is protected as part of the Mining Basin World Heritage Site, listed in 2012, together with the terrils, the cités and a hundred or so other elements across the old coalfield. What strikes you is how ordinary it looks, a plain frame in an urban setting, and yet it stands for generations of men who went down in cages and came back up with faces black with coal.
Read the complete Chevalement du n°1 bis de Liévin write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Chevalement du n°1 bis de Liévin is where the day begins. Next is Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7.
2. Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7
Picture a pit village at six in the morning in 1950: men walking to the headframe with their lunch tins, the siren calling the shift, the women already up and stoking the stoves, children getting ready for the company school. The ensemble around Fosse n°7, near Maisnil-lès-Ruitz and Barlin, preserves the setting for that daily routine: the pit buildings, the housing, the paths between them, and the terril rising nearby. It was a self-contained world, owned and run by the mining company, which provided houses, coal for heating, schools, churches and even doctors, in exchange for loyalty and hard work. The site is one of the many components of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin on the UNESCO list.
Read the complete Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7 comes up about 18 km into the recorded legs. Next is Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune.
3. Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune
Béthune was a mining town on the edge of the Artois, and Pit Number 9 of the Béthune company is one of the surviving complexes that UNESCO included in its listing of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin. A mining complex is more than a hole in the ground: there were the winding house and headframe, the screening and washing plants, the offices, the baths where miners scrubbed off the coal dust, the stables for the pit ponies and the railway sidings, and many of these structures stand near Vermelles. Brick, steel and slag dominate the scene, and a sense of effort and anonymity hangs over it.
Read the complete Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 39 km into the recorded legs you reach Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune. Next is Cité du Moulin.
4. Cité du Moulin
Around Lens the slag heaps rise from the plain like a chain of black pyramids, and the twin cones at Loos-en-Gohelle, among the highest in Europe, are visible for miles. The Cité du Moulin sits in this landscape at Fouquières-lès-Lens, next to Harnes and Billy-Montigny, one of the pit villages built by the mining companies and now part of the UNESCO-listed mining basin. It is a quiet residential area today, but its streets tell the story of the coalfield's most terrible moment.
Read the complete Cité du Moulin write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cité du Moulin, about halfway. Next is Terril 140.
5. Terril 140
Rising out of the flat fields north of Douai, the black, cone-shaped hill of Terril 140 is not a natural feature at all: it is a heap of mining waste, the spoil left over from decades of coal extraction. The mining basin of Nord-Pas-de-Calais, listed by UNESCO in 2012 as a cultural landscape, is studded with hundreds of these terrils, some flat-topped, some pointed, and together with the pitheads, workers' housing and railways they tell the story of an industry that shaped the region for nearly three centuries.
Read the complete Terril 140 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Terril 140 sits at 69 km, about halfway. Next is back through Cité du Moulin.
6. back through Cité du Moulin
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité du Moulin write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Cité du Moulin comes up about 94 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune.
7. back through Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 112 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune. Next is back through Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7.
8. back through Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7, late in the day. Next is Chevalement du n°1 bis de Liévin.
9. Chevalement du n°1 bis de Liévin
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Chevalement du n°1 bis de Liévin 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 146 km.
Leg by leg
Chevalement du n°1 bis de Liévin to Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7
Chevalement du n°1 bis de Liévin → Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7 is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7 to Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune
Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7 → Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune to Cité du Moulin
Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune → Cité du Moulin is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité du Moulin to Terril 140
Cité du Moulin → Terril 140 is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Terril 140 to back through Cité du Moulin
Terril 140 → back through Cité du Moulin is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cité du Moulin to back through Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune
back through Cité du Moulin → back through Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune to back through Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7
back through Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune → back through Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7 is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7 to Chevalement du n°1 bis de Liévin
back through Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7 → Chevalement du n°1 bis de Liévin is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.