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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
247 km from Rouvroy to Rouvroy, about 4 h 16 of riding. On the way it passes Ensemble minier de la Compagnie des Mines, Stadhuis met Belfort and back through Ensemble minier de la Compagnie des Mines. It crosses from France into Belgium - carry ID and check the toll rules.
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cité de la Parisienne is where the day begins. Next is Ensemble minier de la Compagnie des Mines.
Fresnes-sur-Escaut sits right beside the Belgian border, on the river Escaut, which flows north into Belgium as the Scheldt. In 1720, so the story goes, coal was found here for the first time in the Nord, and that find began the transformation of the region. The Compagnie des Mines d'Anzin, founded later in the eighteenth century, became one of the largest industrial enterprises in France and helped create the landscape you ride through today.
Read the complete Ensemble minier de la Compagnie des Mines write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ensemble minier de la Compagnie des Mines comes up about 62 km into the recorded legs. Next is Stadhuis met Belfort.
Oudenaarde's town hall looks like something carved from lace. Built in the early sixteenth century in the late Gothic style, it has a facade covered with pointed arches, niches and statues, and a slender belfry topped with a gilded crown on which stands a small knight known locally as Hanske de Krijger, Little John the Warrior. The building is one of the finest of its kind in Flanders, and it is listed by UNESCO among the belfries of Belgium and France. Inside, there are displays of the tapestries for which Oudenaarde was famous across Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, especially its verdures, woven scenes of forests and greenery.
Read the complete Stadhuis met Belfort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 124 km into the recorded legs you reach Stadhuis met Belfort. Next is back through Ensemble minier de la Compagnie des Mines.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ensemble minier de la Compagnie des Mines write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Ensemble minier de la Compagnie des Mines, late in the day. Next is Cité de la Parisienne.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité de la Parisienne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Cité de la Parisienne. That is the ride.
Cité de la Parisienne → Ensemble minier de la Compagnie des Mines is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ensemble minier de la Compagnie des Mines → Stadhuis met Belfort is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Stadhuis met Belfort → back through Ensemble minier de la Compagnie des Mines is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ensemble minier de la Compagnie des Mines → Cité de la Parisienne is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.