Why this ride
131 km from Vieux-Condé to Vieux-Condé, about 2 h 25 of riding. The stops in between: Château Dampierre, Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu, Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage and Terril 140.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Cité de la Solitude and Terril 140
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 131 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 25
- 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 de la Solitude
The Cité de la Solitude sounds like the name of a novel, but it is a real miners' housing estate in the far east of the French coalfield, near Vieux-Condé and Condé-sur-l'Escaut, within a few kilometres of the Belgian border. Here the mining basin merges into the Hainaut country on the other side, and the two halves share a single history of coal, iron and hard work. The French basin was listed by UNESCO in 2012, and on the Belgian side the major mining sites of Wallonia, including the Grand-Hornu and the Bois-du-Cazier, were listed in the same year. The Beffroi de Thuin, in the Belgian town of Thuin, is one of several belfries in the region recognised by UNESCO as symbols of civic pride.
Read the complete Cité de la Solitude write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cité de la Solitude is where the day begins. Next is Château Dampierre.
2. Château Dampierre
Anzin, on the northern edge of Valenciennes, is where coal mining in northern France began on an industrial scale. In the eighteenth century, the Compagnie des mines d'Anzin became one of the largest companies in France, and its mines, workers' housing, slag heaps and buildings shaped the landscape of the region. Château Dampierre is one of the buildings linked to that history, and it is part of the UNESCO listing of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin, inscribed in 2012, which preserves more than a hundred sites across a vast area: pits, headframes, miners' cités, churches, schools and the great black spoil heaps known as terrils. The big miners' strike at Anzin in 1884 helped inspire Émile Zola's novel Germinal.
Read the complete Château Dampierre write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Château Dampierre comes up about 18 km into the recorded legs. Next is Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu.
3. Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu
Lourches is a small mining town in the Nord department, on the banks of the Escaut river, between Denain and Valenciennes, in the heart of the old coal mining basin that stretched across northern France. The memorial named after Charles Mathieu is one of the elements listed as part of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Mining Basin UNESCO site, alongside pitheads, slag heaps, miners' housing and the buildings of the mining companies.
Read the complete Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 34 km into the recorded legs you reach Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu. Next is Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage.
4. Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage
Coal made this corner of northern France, and coal left it with a landscape unlike anywhere else in the country: slag heaps rising like black pyramids from the fields, pithead frames standing over old shafts and long rows of brick miners' houses lining the streets of every town. The Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin was listed by UNESCO in 2012, and the Cités du Champ Fleuri et du Garage, near Masny and Lewarde, are among its typical housing estates, built by mining companies to house workers and their families close to the pits.
Read the complete Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage, about halfway. Next is Terril 140.
5. Terril 140
Rising out of the flat fields north of Douai, the black, cone-shaped hill of Terril 140 is not a natural feature at all: it is a heap of mining waste, the spoil left over from decades of coal extraction. The mining basin of Nord-Pas-de-Calais, listed by UNESCO in 2012 as a cultural landscape, is studded with hundreds of these terrils, some flat-topped, some pointed, and together with the pitheads, workers' housing and railways they tell the story of an industry that shaped the region for nearly three centuries.
Read the complete Terril 140 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Terril 140 sits at 68 km, about halfway. Next is back through Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage.
6. back through Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage comes up about 84 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu.
7. back through Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 100 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu. Next is back through Château Dampierre.
8. back through Château Dampierre
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Château Dampierre write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Château Dampierre, late in the day. Next is Cité de la Solitude.
9. Cité de la Solitude
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité de la Solitude write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 131 km.
Leg by leg
Cité de la Solitude to Château Dampierre
Cité de la Solitude → Château Dampierre is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Château Dampierre to Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu
Château Dampierre → Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu to Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage
Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu → Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage to Terril 140
Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage → Terril 140 is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Terril 140 to back through Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage
Terril 140 → back through Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage to back through Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu
back through Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage → back through Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu to back through Château Dampierre
back through Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu → back through Château Dampierre is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Château Dampierre to Cité de la Solitude
back through Château Dampierre → Cité de la Solitude is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.