Why this ride
From Auchel it runs 278 km to Auchel; allow about 4 h 07 of riding. The stops in between: Temple protestant, Fosse n°2 de Flines, Château Dampierre and Cités de Guesnain. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Cité de Rimbert and Cités de Guesnain
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 278 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 07
- 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 Rimbert
West of Béthune, the coalfield starts to run out of flat land. The first chalk hills of Artois rise around Auchel and Cauchy-à-la-Tour, and the pit villages climb their slopes in neat rows of brick. The Cité de Rimbert is one of these, built by the mining company of Marles to house its workers, and it belongs to the long necklace of sites in the UNESCO-listed mining basin. Its houses, gardens and straight streets are a textbook example of company planning, with every family given a home, a vegetable plot and a short walk to the pit.
Read the complete Cité de Rimbert write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cité de Rimbert is where the day begins. Next is Temple protestant.
2. Temple protestant
Liévin is a town of thirty-four thousand people that grew up around coal, and the Protestant temple on its streets is a small reminder of how mixed the mining population was. The pits drew workers from Belgium, Poland, Italy and North Africa as well as from the French countryside, and the mining companies built churches, schools, shops and entire districts for them. In a region that was overwhelmingly Catholic, a temple stood a little apart, and its quiet presence says something about the way the basin took in newcomers.
Read the complete Temple protestant write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Temple protestant comes up about 37 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fosse n°2 de Flines.
3. 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
about 71 km into the recorded legs you reach Fosse n°2 de Flines. Next is Château Dampierre.
4. 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, about halfway. Next is Cités de Guesnain.
5. Cités de Guesnain
A kilometre down the road from the workers' housing of Guesnain stands the best place in France to understand what coal really meant. The Centre Historique Minier at Lewarde occupies the old Delloye pit, which closed in 1971, and it walks you through the whole life of a mine: the lamp room, the showers where miners hung their clothes on chains up to the ceiling, the stables for the pit ponies, and a reconstructed gallery underground where you hear the noise of the picks and the creak of the props. Come here first, and every terrace and terril you pass afterwards will make more sense.
Read the complete Cités de Guesnain write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cités de Guesnain sits at 139 km, about halfway. Next is back through Château Dampierre.
6. 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 comes up about 172 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Fosse n°2 de Flines.
7. 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
about 206 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Fosse n°2 de Flines. Next is back through Temple protestant.
8. back through Temple protestant
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Temple protestant write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Temple protestant, late in the day. Next is Cité de Rimbert.
9. Cité de Rimbert
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité de Rimbert 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 278 km.
Leg by leg
Cité de Rimbert to Temple protestant
Cité de Rimbert → Temple protestant is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Temple protestant to Fosse n°2 de Flines
Temple protestant → Fosse n°2 de Flines is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fosse n°2 de Flines to Château Dampierre
Fosse n°2 de Flines → Château Dampierre is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Château Dampierre to Cités de Guesnain
Château Dampierre → Cités de Guesnain is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cités de Guesnain to back through Château Dampierre
Cités de Guesnain → back through Château Dampierre is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Château Dampierre to back through Fosse n°2 de Flines
back through Château Dampierre → back through Fosse n°2 de Flines is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fosse n°2 de Flines to back through Temple protestant
back through Fosse n°2 de Flines → back through Temple protestant is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Temple protestant to Cité de Rimbert
back through Temple protestant → Cité de Rimbert is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.