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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Hénin-Beaumont it runs 285 km to Hénin-Beaumont; allow about 4 h 55 of riding. The stops in between: Château de l’Hermitage, \Halletoren\ ou Belfort and back through Château de l’Hermitage. It crosses from France into Belgium - carry ID and check the toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cité Foch is where the day begins. Next is Château de l’Hermitage.
On the Franco-Belgian border, in a forest that has never much cared which country it is in, a pale classical château stands in a clearing. The Château de l'Hermitage was built in the eighteenth century for the dukes of Croÿ, one of the great aristocratic families of the region, as a refined country retreat, and it sits just inside France, near Condé-sur-l'Escaut, at the edge of the forest of Bon-Secours. The family's title went back centuries, and their estates spread across both sides of what is now the border.
Read the complete Château de l’Hermitage write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Château de l’Hermitage comes up about 61 km into the recorded legs. Next is \Halletoren\ ou Belfort.
Tielt is a working town in the heart of West Flanders, a place of farmers' markets, textile history and flat roads, and its belfry rises above the market square like a stubborn finger pointing at the clouds. The Halletoren, the hall tower, stands on top of the old cloth hall, the building where merchants once inspected and traded woollen cloth, the source of Flanders' wealth in the Middle Ages. The belfry is one of the group of Belgian and French belfries that UNESCO listed together, symbols of the civic freedom that the cities of Flanders won from their lords, where the town charters were kept and the bells rang to call citizens to arms or to work.
Read the complete \Halletoren\ ou Belfort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 142 km into the recorded legs you reach \Halletoren\ ou Belfort. Next is back through Château de l’Hermitage.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Château de l’Hermitage write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Château de l’Hermitage, late in the day. Next is Cité Foch.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité Foch write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Cité Foch. That is the ride.
Cité Foch → Château de l’Hermitage is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Château de l’Hermitage → \Halletoren\ ou Belfort is 81 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
\Halletoren\ ou Belfort → back through Château de l’Hermitage is 81 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Château de l’Hermitage → Cité Foch is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.