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.
A 70 km round trip from Bruay-la-Buissière - roughly 1 h 24 in the saddle. On the way it passes Monument du soldat Marche, Camus Haut and back through Monument du soldat Marche. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
South of Bruay-la-Buissière the land stops being a miners' plain and starts to feel like Artois, with small rivers, wooded valleys and the first rolling hills. It is the sort of cité that you come across by accident, a cluster of brick houses with gardens, set a little apart from the village, built for the Compagnie des mines de Béthune or one of its neighbours. UNESCO's 2012 listing included many of these, and each has a slightly different plan.
Read the complete Cité du château des Dames write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cité du château des Dames is where the day begins. Next is Monument du soldat Marche.
Bully-les-Mines lies just below the long ridge of Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, where the great French military cemetery overlooks the coalfield, and the juxtaposition says something about this part of France. The land around is a battlefield and a mining basin at the same time. In 1914 and 1915 the front line ran through here, and the villages were shattered. After the war they were rebuilt, and the new mining estates, the cités de la Victoire and des Arbres, took names that spoke of recovery.
Read the complete Monument du soldat Marche write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Monument du soldat Marche comes up about 19 km into the recorded legs. Next is Camus Haut.
Camus Haut lies on the eastern edge of the mining basin, near Annay, Pont-à-Vendin and Harnes, where the canalised Deûle carries barges north towards Lille. The label refers to one of the many mining sites and cités of the area, and while the exact spot is hard to identify from a distance, the landscape tells you what kind of place it is: brick housing estates, old pit heads, spoil heaps going green, and the wide, flat horizon of the Gohelle.
Read the complete Camus Haut write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 34 km into the recorded legs you reach Camus Haut. Next is back through Monument du soldat Marche.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Monument du soldat Marche write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Monument du soldat Marche, late in the day. Next is Cité du château des Dames.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité du château des Dames write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Cité du château des Dames. That is the ride.
Cité du château des Dames → Monument du soldat Marche is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Monument du soldat Marche → Camus Haut is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Camus Haut → back through Monument du soldat Marche is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Monument du soldat Marche → Cité du château des Dames is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.