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 Liévin it runs 162 km to Liévin; allow about 3 h 01 of riding. It goes by way of Les cités des Musiciens, Terril 32, Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin and back through Terril 32. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
A headframe is the most honest piece of architecture in a mining country, because it exists only to hold up a wheel. The chevalement of Pit 3 bis at Lens is one of those tall, simple frames of concrete or steel, once used to raise coal and men from hundreds of metres underground, and it is now one of the markers of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Mining Basin, listed by UNESCO in 2012 as a living cultural landscape. At the height of the industry, hundreds of such frames stood on this flat country, and the sky was filled with smoke and steam.
Read the complete Chevalement du n°3 bis de Lens write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chevalement du n°3 bis de Lens is where the day begins. Next is Les cités des Musiciens.
In Bruay-la-Buissière, the streets of one mining estate carry the names of composers, which is where the Cités des Musiciens get their name. The mining company laid out housing in neat rows of brick, with gardens, pavements and modest decorative touches, and gave the lanes names such as Mozart, Berlioz and Bizet, a gesture that mixes paternalism with a certain poetry. Whether the miners cared much about the choice is another question, but the estates have a distinctive atmosphere, and they are listed by UNESCO as part of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin.
Read the complete Les cités des Musiciens write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Les cités des Musiciens comes up about 24 km into the recorded legs. Next is Terril 32.
Out on the western fringe of the coal basin, where the mining country fades into the farmland of the Lys valley and the edge of the Artois hills, Terril 32 rises near Norrent-Fontes, Mametz and Thérouanne. This is the far end of the seam, a long way from the dense cités around Lens and Douai, and the countryside feels it: smaller villages, more fields, more trees, and pits that were fewer and further between. The heap stands almost like a lone hill above the cropland, a reminder that coal reached even here.
Read the complete Terril 32 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 45 km into the recorded legs you reach Terril 32. Next is Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin.
Hesdin is a small market town in the green valley of the Canche, in the Pas-de-Calais, and it owes its existence to an act of destruction. The original town, a few kilometres upstream, was razed in 1553 by the forces of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, and a new fortified town was built here the following year as a strongpoint on the frontier between France and the Habsburg Netherlands. The grid of streets and the large market square still follow that plan. On the square stands the town hall, a former palace of the Habsburg governors, with a beautifully carved Renaissance balcony from which proclamations were read, and its belfry is part of the UNESCO list of belfries in Belgium and France.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin, about halfway. Next is back through Terril 32.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Terril 32 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Terril 32 sits at 121 km, about halfway. Next is back through Les cités des Musiciens.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Les cités des Musiciens write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Les cités des Musiciens comes up about 138 km into the recorded legs. Next is Chevalement du n°3 bis de Lens.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Chevalement du n°3 bis de Lens write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chevalement du n°3 bis de Lens closes the day.
Chevalement du n°3 bis de Lens → Les cités des Musiciens is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Les cités des Musiciens → Terril 32 is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Terril 32 → Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin → back through Terril 32 is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Terril 32 → back through Les cités des Musiciens is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Les cités des Musiciens → Chevalement du n°3 bis de Lens is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.