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: 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.
From Sallaumines it runs 160 km to Sallaumines; allow about 2 h 25 of riding. On the way it passes Cités de la Solitude, Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu, Compagnie des Mines d’Anzin: Ensemble comm and back through Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu. The line favours views over speed.
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cité Deblock is where the day begins. Next is Cités de la Solitude.
On the edge of Waziers, near Douai, the cités de la Solitude are rows of brick houses built by a mining company for its workers, laid out in neat streets with small gardens. Such company towns, the cités minières, were the backbone of life in the coal basin of northern France, providing housing, schools, churches and shops for miners and their families, and they are among the most important elements of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Mining Basin, listed by UNESCO in 2012. The name Solitude seems almost ironic for a place built to house so many people close together.
Read the complete Cités de la Solitude write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cités de la Solitude comes up about 26 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 51 km into the recorded legs you reach Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu. Next is Compagnie des Mines d’Anzin: Ensemble comm.
In 1757, a group of aristocrats and entrepreneurs founded the Compagnie des Mines d'Anzin to work the coal seams found under the plains near Valenciennes. It grew into one of the largest industrial companies in France, owning dozens of pits, thousands of workers' houses and its own schools, churches and shops. The ensemble here at Fresnes-sur-Escaut, close to the Belgian border, includes buildings connected with the company's long history, and it is part of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin World Heritage site.
Read the complete Compagnie des Mines d’Anzin: Ensemble comm write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Compagnie des Mines d’Anzin: Ensemble comm, about halfway. Next is back through Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu sits at 103 km, about halfway. Next is back through Cités de la Solitude.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cités de la Solitude write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cités de la Solitude comes up about 130 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cité Deblock.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité Deblock write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cité Deblock closes the day.
Cité Deblock → Cités de la Solitude is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cités de la Solitude → Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu → Compagnie des Mines d’Anzin: Ensemble comm is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Compagnie des Mines d’Anzin: Ensemble comm → back through Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu → back through Cités de la Solitude is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cités de la Solitude → Cité Deblock is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.