Why this ride
153 km from Fouquières-lès-Lens to Fouquières-lès-Lens, about 2 h 30 of riding. On the way it passes Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras, Cité n°10, Cité de Rimbert and back through Cité n°10.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Cité du Moulin and Cité de Rimbert
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 153 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 30
- 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 du Moulin
Around Lens the slag heaps rise from the plain like a chain of black pyramids, and the twin cones at Loos-en-Gohelle, among the highest in Europe, are visible for miles. The Cité du Moulin sits in this landscape at Fouquières-lès-Lens, next to Harnes and Billy-Montigny, one of the pit villages built by the mining companies and now part of the UNESCO-listed mining basin. It is a quiet residential area today, but its streets tell the story of the coalfield's most terrible moment.
Read the complete Cité du Moulin write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cité du Moulin is where the day begins. Next is Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras.
2. Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras
Arras has two great squares, the Grand-Place and the Place des Héros, surrounded by tall Flemish-baroque houses with curved gables and arcades, and towering above them is the belfry of the town hall, over seventy metres high. It looks medieval, but most of it is a careful reconstruction: Arras was devastated by German artillery during the First World War, when the front line ran just east of the town for years, and the belfry was destroyed in 1914. After the war, the people of Arras rebuilt it, along with the squares, and today it is one of the belfries of Belgium and France listed by UNESCO.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras 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’Arras comes up about 24 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cité n°10.
3. Cité n°10
Sains-en-Gohelle is a former coal town in the heart of the Nord-Pas de Calais mining basin, and Cité n°10 is one of its old mining estates, rows of brick houses built for miners and their families around a pithead. The basin, which stretches about 120 kilometres from the Belgian border towards the west, was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012, and the cités, the slag heaps and the headframes are its most visible remains.
Read the complete Cité n°10 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 48 km into the recorded legs you reach Cité n°10. Next is Cité de Rimbert.
4. Cité de Rimbert
West of Béthune, the coalfield starts to run out of flat land. The first chalk hills of Artois rise around Auchel and Cauchy-à-la-Tour, and the pit villages climb their slopes in neat rows of brick. The Cité de Rimbert is one of these, built by the mining company of Marles to house its workers, and it belongs to the long necklace of sites in the UNESCO-listed mining basin. Its houses, gardens and straight streets are a textbook example of company planning, with every family given a home, a vegetable plot and a short walk to the pit.
Read the complete Cité de Rimbert write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cité de Rimbert, about halfway. Next is back through Cité n°10.
5. back through Cité n°10
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité n°10 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Cité n°10 sits at 98 km, about halfway. Next is back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras.
6. back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras comes up about 126 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cité du Moulin.
7. Cité du Moulin
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité du Moulin write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cité du Moulin closes the day.
Leg by leg
Cité du Moulin to Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras
Cité du Moulin → Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras to Cité n°10
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras → Cité n°10 is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité n°10 to Cité de Rimbert
Cité n°10 → Cité de Rimbert is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité de Rimbert to back through Cité n°10
Cité de Rimbert → back through Cité n°10 is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cité n°10 to back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras
back through Cité n°10 → back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras to Cité du Moulin
back through Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Arras → Cité du Moulin is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.