Why this ride
66 km from Noyelles-Godault to Noyelles-Godault, about 1 h 10 of riding. On the way it passes Gare de Lens, Cité des Soeurs and back through Gare de Lens. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Cité Crombez and Cité des Soeurs
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 66 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 10
- 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 Crombez
Cité Crombez is a miners' settlement at Noyelles-Godault, on the eastern edge of Hénin-Beaumont, in the heart of the old coal basin between Lens and Douai. Built by the mining company to house its workers, it has the classic layout of brick houses, gardens and straight streets, and it is part of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin World Heritage site. Today it is a quiet residential area, surrounded by shopping centres, motorways and the remains of heavy industry.
Read the complete Cité Crombez write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cité Crombez is where the day begins. Next is Gare de Lens.
2. Gare de Lens
Lens station looks like a locomotive, which is exactly what its architects intended. The Art Deco building, completed in the 1920s to replace a station destroyed in the First World War, has a long low front with a tall central block that suggests a train at speed, and its brick and stone are laid out with real flair. Inside and out it was designed to tell people that this was a town that had survived and meant to thrive, and few stations of its date achieve the effect so well.
Read the complete Gare de Lens write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Gare de Lens comes up about 14 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cité des Soeurs.
3. Cité des Soeurs
At the western edge of the coalfield, where the plain of the mining basin starts to buckle into the chalk hills of Artois, the town of Barlin grew up around its pits. The Cité des Soeurs is one of its housing estates, rows of brick miners' houses with gardens, and Terril 244, a slag heap now furred with trees, stands nearby like a man-made hill. Both belong to the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin World Heritage Site, which covers more than a hundred kilometres of coal country from the Belgian border westwards.
Read the complete Cité des Soeurs write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 33 km into the recorded legs you reach Cité des Soeurs. Next is back through Gare de Lens.
4. back through Gare de Lens
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Gare de Lens write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Gare de Lens, late in the day. Next is Cité Crombez.
5. Cité Crombez
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité Crombez write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Cité Crombez. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Cité Crombez to Gare de Lens
Cité Crombez → Gare de Lens is 14 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Gare de Lens to Cité des Soeurs
Gare de Lens → Cité des Soeurs is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité des Soeurs to back through Gare de Lens
Cité des Soeurs → back through Gare de Lens is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Gare de Lens to Cité Crombez
back through Gare de Lens → Cité Crombez is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.