Why this ride
164 km from Bruay-sur-l'Escaut to Bruay-sur-l'Escaut, about 2 h 38 of riding. It goes by way of Cités de Beaurepaire, Ensemble minier de la fosse Cornuault, Terril 125a and back through Ensemble minier de la fosse Cornuault.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Cité du Rivage ancienne and Terril 125a
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 164 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 38
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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 Rivage ancienne
Brick terraced houses, small gardens and a straight street running toward the Escaut: at first glance the Cité du Rivage in Bruay-sur-l'Escaut looks like any working-class neighbourhood in northern France. It is part of something much larger. In 2012, UNESCO listed the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin, a landscape of pit villages, headframes, slag heaps and railways stretching over a hundred kilometres, as a monument to three centuries of coal. This cité is one of its many fragments, an early housing development built by the mining companies to keep their workers close to the pits.
Read the complete Cité du Rivage ancienne write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cité du Rivage ancienne is where the day begins. Next is Cités de Beaurepaire.
2. Cités de Beaurepaire
Somain exists because of the railway. Several lines meet here, and the town grew up around the station, which still has the busy feel of a junction. The Cités de Beaurepaire were built by the Aniche mining company, one of the great concerns of the northern coalfield, and they show how a company could shape a landscape: neat brick rows, small squares, a few shared buildings, and gardens laid out to a plan. A local will tell you who lived in which house and which families still do; an outsider notices the symmetry first, and then the small signs of individuality, a painted door, a trellis, a satellite dish pointing the wrong way.
Read the complete Cités de Beaurepaire write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cités de Beaurepaire comes up 26 km in. Next is Ensemble minier de la fosse Cornuault.
3. Ensemble minier de la fosse Cornuault
The flat country between Douai and Lens does not look like much from a motorway, but it holds one of the great industrial landscapes of Europe. For more than two centuries coal was dug from under these fields, and the mining basin of the Nord-Pas de Calais was listed by UNESCO in 2012 as an evolving cultural landscape of pits, slag heaps, railway lines and workers' housing. The Fosse Cornuault at Évin-Malmaison is one piece of that vast mosaic, a former colliery site with its associated buildings, set among the brick villages of the eastern part of the basin.
Read the complete Ensemble minier de la fosse Cornuault write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
52 km in you reach Ensemble minier de la fosse Cornuault. Next is Terril 125a.
4. Terril 125a
On the southern edge of the coal basin, where Auberchicourt, Écaillon and Aniche run into one another, a long spoil heap rises above the brick roofs and the fields. Terril 125a is one of the many numbered heaps that the Nord-Pas de Calais inventory catalogues, and it belongs to the old concession of the Compagnie des mines d'Aniche, one of the historic coal companies of the region. Aniche itself is a reminder that the north was not only about coal: the town had a long glassmaking tradition, and the combination of fuel, sand and labour made the area an industrial hub well before the twentieth century.
Read the complete Terril 125a write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Terril 125a, about halfway. Next is back through Ensemble minier de la fosse Cornuault.
5. back through Ensemble minier de la fosse Cornuault
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ensemble minier de la fosse Cornuault write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Ensemble minier de la fosse Cornuault sits at 103 km, about halfway. Next is back through Cités de Beaurepaire.
6. back through Cités de Beaurepaire
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cités de Beaurepaire 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 Beaurepaire comes up 129 km in. Next is Cité du Rivage ancienne.
7. Cité du Rivage ancienne
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité du Rivage ancienne write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cité du Rivage ancienne closes the day.
Leg by leg
Cité du Rivage ancienne to Cités de Beaurepaire
Cité du Rivage ancienne → Cités de Beaurepaire is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cités de Beaurepaire to Ensemble minier de la fosse Cornuault
Cités de Beaurepaire → Ensemble minier de la fosse Cornuault is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ensemble minier de la fosse Cornuault to Terril 125a
Ensemble minier de la fosse Cornuault → Terril 125a is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Terril 125a to back through Ensemble minier de la fosse Cornuault
Terril 125a → back through Ensemble minier de la fosse Cornuault is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ensemble minier de la fosse Cornuault to back through Cités de Beaurepaire
back through Ensemble minier de la fosse Cornuault → back through Cités de Beaurepaire is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cités de Beaurepaire to Cité du Rivage ancienne
back through Cités de Beaurepaire → Cité du Rivage ancienne is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.