Why this ride
A 128 km round trip from Sallaumines - roughly 2 h 11 in the saddle. It goes by way of Cités de la Justice et du Moulin, Cité Barrois, Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu and Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Cité Deblock and Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 128 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 11
- 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 Deblock
Sallaumines is one of those towns that merges into its neighbours until you cannot tell where one stops, and the whole built-up band between Lens and Hénin-Beaumont is mining country. Cité Deblock is one of the company housing estates that went up in the twentieth century as the mines expanded, with brick houses in rows or pairs, gardens at the front and back, and a layout planned by engineers who believed good housing kept a workforce loyal. The UNESCO listing of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais mining basin in 2012 covers a number of such estates, because together they show how an entire society was built around coal.
Read the complete Cité Deblock write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cité Deblock is where the day begins. Next is Cités de la Justice et du Moulin.
2. Cités de la Justice et du Moulin
For almost three centuries, coal shaped the land between Valenciennes and Béthune in northern France, creating a landscape of pits, slag heaps, railway lines and miners' housing estates. The Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2012, and the Cités de la Justice et du Moulin in Auby are part of it: rows of brick houses built by the mining companies to house their workers, with gardens, churches, schools and shops, all organised around the pit. The cités are still inhabited, so treat them as neighbourhoods rather than museums.
Read the complete Cités de la Justice et du Moulin write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cités de la Justice et du Moulin comes up about 17 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cité Barrois.
3. Cité Barrois
Rows of red-brick cottages, each with its garden, set along curving streets with trees: the Cité Barrois in Pecquencourt looks almost English, and that is no accident. In the later years of the coal era, the mining companies of northern France built garden cities for their workers, influenced by ideas from across the Channel about healthy housing and green space. This one is part of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Mining Basin, listed by UNESCO in 2012 as an entire landscape of pits, slag heaps, workers' housing, schools, churches and railways spread over more than a hundred kilometres.
Read the complete Cité Barrois write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 32 km into the recorded legs you reach Cité Barrois. Next is Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu.
4. 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
Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu, about halfway. Next is Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage.
5. 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 sits at 67 km, about halfway. Next is back through Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu.
6. 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
back through Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu comes up about 79 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Cité Barrois.
7. back through Cité Barrois
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité Barrois write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 96 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Cité Barrois. Next is back through Cités de la Justice et du Moulin.
8. back through Cités de la Justice et du Moulin
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cités de la Justice et du Moulin write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Cités de la Justice et du Moulin, late in the day. Next is Cité Deblock.
9. Cité Deblock
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité Deblock 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 128 km.
Leg by leg
Cité Deblock to Cités de la Justice et du Moulin
Cité Deblock → Cités de la Justice et du Moulin is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cités de la Justice et du Moulin to Cité Barrois
Cités de la Justice et du Moulin → Cité Barrois is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité Barrois to Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu
Cité Barrois → Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu is 17 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 14 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage to back through Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu
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 Cité Barrois
back through Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu → back through Cité Barrois is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cité Barrois to back through Cités de la Justice et du Moulin
back through Cité Barrois → back through Cités de la Justice et du Moulin is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cités de la Justice et du Moulin to Cité Deblock
back through Cités de la Justice et du Moulin → Cité Deblock is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.