Why this ride
From Liévin it runs 161 km to Liévin; allow about 3 h 01 of riding. On the way it passes Cités de la Victoire et des Arbres, Terril 32, Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin and back through Terril 32. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Cité des Petits Bois and Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 161 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 01
- 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 des Petits Bois
There is a particular kind of street in the old coalfield that outsiders mistake for suburban normality. Rows of identical brick houses, each with a small front garden, line a gently curving road, with a school at one end and a church at the other. These are the cités, built by the mining companies to house their workers, and the Cité des Petits Bois at Liévin is one of them. It belongs to the same family as the cités of the Solitude, named on this ride, and together they tell how a company could organise the life of its men from cradle to pit head.
Read the complete Cité des Petits Bois write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cité des Petits Bois is where the day begins. Next is Cités de la Victoire et des Arbres.
2. Cités de la Victoire et des Arbres
Houdain is a mining town in the Pas-de-Calais, a couple of kilometres from Bruay and a short hop from Béthune, and its workers' estates carry names that read like a municipal promise: Victory and Trees. They belong to the western end of the northern French coalfield, which stretches in a long band across the Nord and Pas-de-Calais and which was the engine of the region for more than two centuries. Here the company built housing on a scale that still surprises. Whole districts of identical brick houses, each with its own garden plot, were laid out in rows and crescents, so that miners and their families would live close to the pit and under the eye of their employer.
Read the complete Cités de la Victoire et des Arbres write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cités de la Victoire et des Arbres comes up about 22 km into the recorded legs. Next is Terril 32.
3. Terril 32
Out on the western fringe of the coal basin, where the mining country fades into the farmland of the Lys valley and the edge of the Artois hills, Terril 32 rises near Norrent-Fontes, Mametz and Thérouanne. This is the far end of the seam, a long way from the dense cités around Lens and Douai, and the countryside feels it: smaller villages, more fields, more trees, and pits that were fewer and further between. The heap stands almost like a lone hill above the cropland, a reminder that coal reached even here.
Read the complete Terril 32 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 44 km into the recorded legs you reach Terril 32. Next is Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin.
4. Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin
Hesdin is a small market town in the green valley of the Canche, in the Pas-de-Calais, and it owes its existence to an act of destruction. The original town, a few kilometres upstream, was razed in 1553 by the forces of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, and a new fortified town was built here the following year as a strongpoint on the frontier between France and the Habsburg Netherlands. The grid of streets and the large market square still follow that plan. On the square stands the town hall, a former palace of the Habsburg governors, with a beautifully carved Renaissance balcony from which proclamations were read, and its belfry is part of the UNESCO list of belfries in Belgium and France.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin, about halfway. Next is back through Terril 32.
5. back through Terril 32
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Terril 32 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Terril 32 sits at 125 km, about halfway. Next is back through Cités de la Victoire et des Arbres.
6. back through Cités de la Victoire et des Arbres
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cités de la Victoire et des Arbres 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 Victoire et des Arbres comes up about 139 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cité des Petits Bois.
7. Cité des Petits Bois
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité des Petits Bois write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cité des Petits Bois closes the day.
Leg by leg
Cité des Petits Bois to Cités de la Victoire et des Arbres
Cité des Petits Bois → Cités de la Victoire et des Arbres is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cités de la Victoire et des Arbres to Terril 32
Cités de la Victoire et des Arbres → Terril 32 is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Terril 32 to Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin
Terril 32 → Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin to back through Terril 32
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin → back through Terril 32 is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Terril 32 to back through Cités de la Victoire et des Arbres
back through Terril 32 → back through Cités de la Victoire et des Arbres is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cités de la Victoire et des Arbres to Cité des Petits Bois
back through Cités de la Victoire et des Arbres → Cité des Petits Bois is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.