Why this ride
A 178 km round trip from Hénin-Beaumont - roughly 3 h 13 in the saddle. On the way it passes Cité n°2, Cité de Rimbert, Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin and back through Cité de Rimbert. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Cité Foch and Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 178 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 13
- 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 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
Cité Foch is where the day begins. Next is Cité n°2.
2. Cité n°2
Mazingarbe is a small town on the northern edge of the mining basin, with the terraced rows of a miners' cité running down streets of red brick, and nearly twelve thousand people live in neighbouring Bully-les-Mines. The Cité Foch and the Cité Bellevue are two of the estates that mark this stretch of the basin on the map. The cité, built by the coal company for its workers, usually came with a school, a church, a company shop and a community hall, so that the pit shaped a whole life.
Read the complete Cité n°2 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cité n°2 comes up about 23 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cité de Rimbert.
3. 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
about 51 km into the recorded legs you reach Cité de Rimbert. 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 Cité de Rimbert.
5. back through Cité de Rimbert
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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
back through Cité de Rimbert sits at 129 km, about halfway. Next is back through Cité n°2.
6. back through Cité n°2
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité n°2 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°2 comes up about 154 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cité Foch.
7. Cité Foch
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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
Cité Foch closes the day.
Leg by leg
Cité Foch to Cité n°2
Cité Foch → Cité n°2 is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité n°2 to Cité de Rimbert
Cité n°2 → Cité de Rimbert is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité de Rimbert to Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin
Cité de Rimbert → Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin is 37 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 Cité de Rimbert
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin → back through Cité de Rimbert is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cité de Rimbert to back through Cité n°2
back through Cité de Rimbert → back through Cité n°2 is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cité n°2 to Cité Foch
back through Cité n°2 → Cité Foch is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.