Why this ride
79 km from Dourges to Dourges, about 1 h 24 of riding. On the way it passes Fosse n°2 de Flines, Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Escaudain and back through Fosse n°2 de Flines. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Cité Bruno and Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Escaudain
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 79 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 24
- 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 Fosse n°2 de Flines.
2. Fosse n°2 de Flines
The headframe is the giveaway. In the low, watery country between Lallaing, Anhiers and Flines-lez-Raches, the steel or concrete winding towers of old coal pits still stand as markers, and Fosse n°2 de Flines is one of the sites that recall the industry that shaped this corner of the Douai area. A fosse in the local vocabulary is a pit with its shafts, buildings and spoil heap, and around each one a small world grew: rows of brick housing, a church, a school, and the company offices that ran the lives of everyone underground and above it.
Read the complete Fosse n°2 de Flines write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Fosse n°2 de Flines comes up about 18 km into the recorded legs. Next is Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Escaudain.
3. Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Escaudain
Escaudain sits in the old heartland of the Compagnie des mines d'Anzin, the oldest and once the most powerful of the coal companies in northern France, and the landscape around it is pure mining country: rows of brick terraces, spoil heaps, old railway embankments and the occasional headframe standing like a monument. This is the Valenciennes end of the coalfield, close to the Belgian border, and it was here that coal mining in the north began in the eighteenth century. The town and its surroundings form one of the many components of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin, which UNESCO inscribed in 2012 as an evolving cultural landscape.
Read the complete Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Escaudain write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 40 km into the recorded legs you reach Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Escaudain. Next is back through Fosse n°2 de Flines.
4. back through Fosse n°2 de Flines
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fosse n°2 de Flines write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Fosse n°2 de Flines, 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 Fosse n°2 de Flines
Cité Bruno → Fosse n°2 de Flines is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fosse n°2 de Flines to Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Escaudain
Fosse n°2 de Flines → Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Escaudain is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Escaudain to back through Fosse n°2 de Flines
Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Escaudain → back through Fosse n°2 de Flines is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fosse n°2 de Flines to Cité Bruno
back through Fosse n°2 de Flines → Cité Bruno is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.