Why this ride
From Barlin it runs 62 km to Barlin; allow about 1 h 06 of riding. The stops in between: Temple protestant, Cité Foch and back through Temple protestant.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Cité des Soeurs and Cité Foch
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 62 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 06
- 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 Soeurs
At the western edge of the coalfield, where the plain of the mining basin starts to buckle into the chalk hills of Artois, the town of Barlin grew up around its pits. The Cité des Soeurs is one of its housing estates, rows of brick miners' houses with gardens, and Terril 244, a slag heap now furred with trees, stands nearby like a man-made hill. Both belong to the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin World Heritage Site, which covers more than a hundred kilometres of coal country from the Belgian border westwards.
Read the complete Cité des Soeurs write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cité des Soeurs 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 14 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cité Foch.
3. Cité Foch
Row upon row of identical brick houses, each with its small garden, outbuilding and front door painted in the colour of the mining company: that is a cité minière, and Cité Foch, between Hénin-Beaumont and Montigny-en-Gohelle, is one of the many hundreds that the coal companies built across northern France. They were designed to house miners and their families close to the pits, and they came in different forms over the decades, from the long terraces of the nineteenth century, the corons, to the garden cities of the early twentieth century, with semi-detached houses, wide streets and green spaces. Many of these neighbourhoods are included in the UNESCO listing of the mining basin.
Read the complete Cité Foch write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 30 km into the recorded legs you reach Cité Foch. Next is back through Temple protestant.
4. 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 des Soeurs.
5. Cité des Soeurs
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité des Soeurs write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Cité des Soeurs. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Cité des Soeurs to Temple protestant
Cité des Soeurs → Temple protestant is 14 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Temple protestant to Cité Foch
Temple protestant → Cité Foch is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité Foch to back through Temple protestant
Cité Foch → back through Temple protestant is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Temple protestant to Cité des Soeurs
back through Temple protestant → Cité des Soeurs is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.