Why this ride
251 km from Dourges to Dourges, about 3 h 52 of riding. On the way it passes Terril 34, Beffroi de Bergues and back through Terril 34. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Cité Bruno and Beffroi de Bergues
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 251 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 52
- 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. Cité Bruno
Dourges sits between Lens and Douai, in the very middle of the old coal basin, and the Cité Bruno is one of the rows of brick homes the mining company put up for its workers. What stays with you is the quiet. A district that once lay under smoke now has pigeons on the roofs, bicycles against the walls and hedges clipped square, and the street plan, with its straight lines and identical frontages, makes it feel like a stage set for a very ordinary life. Château Dampierre, the name that goes with this stop, is a reminder that the land around here also belonged to owners and gentry long before the pits, so there is a country-house layer under the industrial one.
Read the complete Cité Bruno write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cité Bruno is where the day begins. Next is Terril 34.
2. 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
Terril 34 comes up about 61 km into the recorded legs. Next is Beffroi de Bergues.
3. Beffroi de Bergues
Bergues found a new kind of fame in 2008, when the comedy Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis, filmed here, became one of the most successful French films of all time, and suddenly the whole country wanted to see the town where a postman from the south is exiled to the cold north and ends up falling in love with it. The film's best-known scenes include the belfry, from which the hero rings the carillon, and the town still welcomes visitors who come in search of the locations. But Bergues was a proud place long before cinema arrived. It is a small fortified town in French Flanders, surrounded by ramparts and canals, with fortifications improved by Vauban in the seventeenth century.
Read the complete Beffroi de Bergues write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 126 km into the recorded legs you reach Beffroi de Bergues. Next is back through Terril 34.
4. back through Terril 34
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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
back through Terril 34, late in the day. Next is Cité Bruno.
5. Cité Bruno
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité Bruno write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Cité Bruno. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Cité Bruno to Terril 34
Cité Bruno → Terril 34 is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Terril 34 to Beffroi de Bergues
Terril 34 → Beffroi de Bergues is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de Bergues to back through Terril 34
Beffroi de Bergues → back through Terril 34 is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Terril 34 to Cité Bruno
back through Terril 34 → Cité Bruno is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.