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CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE

Cité de la Parisienne and Cité n°10

Plan this ride

Recorded distance
77 km
Riding-time estimate
1 h 23
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.

Open this ride in CurveScout

Why this ride

77 km from Rouvroy to Rouvroy, about 1 h 23 of riding. The stops in between: Cité de la Gare, Cité n°10 and back through Cité de la Gare. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

  1. 1. Cité de la Parisienne

    Drocourt is the sort of place you could ride through without a second glance, and you would miss a small piece of the story of northern France. The Cité de la Parisienne is a mining housing estate on the edge of the town, a grid of brick houses built by the coal company for its workers and their families, part of the UNESCO-listed Mining Basin. The name comes from the company that dug coal here. Hénin-Beaumont and Rouvroy press in on either side, and the black cones of the slag heaps rise above the rooftops.

    Read the complete Cité de la Parisienne write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

    May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

    Planning note

    Cité de la Parisienne is where the day begins. Next is Cité de la Gare.

  2. 2. Cité de la Gare

    Wingles is a small town of nearly nine thousand people on the southern edge of the Lens coalfield, and its Cité de la Gare takes its name from the railway station that once carried coal away. This is the logistics of the mining basin laid bare: pit, rail, canal and village. The coal came up the shafts, was hauled to the sorting plants and loaded on trains that ran to the factories of the north and the ports of the Channel, while the people who dug it lived in neat brick rows within sight of the headframes.

    Read the complete Cité de la Gare write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

    May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

    Planning note

    Cité de la Gare comes up about 20 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cité n°10.

  3. 3. Cité n°10

    Sains-en-Gohelle is a former coal town in the heart of the Nord-Pas de Calais mining basin, and Cité n°10 is one of its old mining estates, rows of brick houses built for miners and their families around a pithead. The basin, which stretches about 120 kilometres from the Belgian border towards the west, was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012, and the cités, the slag heaps and the headframes are its most visible remains.

    Read the complete Cité n°10 write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

    May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

    Planning note

    about 38 km into the recorded legs you reach Cité n°10. Next is back through Cité de la Gare.

  4. 4. back through Cité de la Gare

    Return visit. Read the place description above.

    Read the complete Cité de la Gare write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

    May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

    Planning note

    back through Cité de la Gare, late in the day. Next is Cité de la Parisienne.

  5. 5. Cité de la Parisienne

    Return visit. Read the place description above.

    Read the complete Cité de la Parisienne write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

    May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

    Planning note

    Back at Cité de la Parisienne. That is the ride.

Leg by leg

Cité de la Parisienne to Cité de la Gare

Cité de la Parisienne → Cité de la Gare is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.

Cité de la Gare to Cité n°10

Cité de la Gare → Cité n°10 is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.

Cité n°10 to back through Cité de la Gare

Cité n°10 → back through Cité de la Gare is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.

back through Cité de la Gare to Cité de la Parisienne

back through Cité de la Gare → Cité de la Parisienne is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.

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