Why this ride
From Courrières it runs 74 km to Courrières; allow about 1 h 18 of riding. The stops in between: Terril 140, Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage and back through Terril 140. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Cité Saint-Paul and Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 74 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 18
- 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 Saint-Paul
The mining basin of northern France is a flat, open country that seems to have been built entirely by hand, and among the first things you notice are the hills that nature never put there. They are the terrils, the slag heaps of the coal mines, some of them more than a hundred metres high, and around Courrières they punctuate the horizon between rows of brick houses. The Cité Saint-Paul belongs to this world: a miners' housing estate, laid out by the mining company with its rows of uniform houses, gardens, schools and a church, so that a worker could live, shop and pray within the company's reach.
Read the complete Cité Saint-Paul write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cité Saint-Paul is where the day begins. Next is Terril 140.
2. Terril 140
Rising out of the flat fields north of Douai, the black, cone-shaped hill of Terril 140 is not a natural feature at all: it is a heap of mining waste, the spoil left over from decades of coal extraction. The mining basin of Nord-Pas-de-Calais, listed by UNESCO in 2012 as a cultural landscape, is studded with hundreds of these terrils, some flat-topped, some pointed, and together with the pitheads, workers' housing and railways they tell the story of an industry that shaped the region for nearly three centuries.
Read the complete Terril 140 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Terril 140 comes up about 22 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage.
3. Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage
Coal made this corner of northern France, and coal left it with a landscape unlike anywhere else in the country: slag heaps rising like black pyramids from the fields, pithead frames standing over old shafts and long rows of brick miners' houses lining the streets of every town. The Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin was listed by UNESCO in 2012, and the Cités du Champ Fleuri et du Garage, near Masny and Lewarde, are among its typical housing estates, built by mining companies to house workers and their families close to the pits.
Read the complete Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 39 km into the recorded legs you reach Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage. Next is back through Terril 140.
4. back through Terril 140
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Terril 140 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Terril 140, late in the day. Next is Cité Saint-Paul.
5. Cité Saint-Paul
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité Saint-Paul write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Cité Saint-Paul. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Cité Saint-Paul to Terril 140
Cité Saint-Paul → Terril 140 is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Terril 140 to Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage
Terril 140 → Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage to back through Terril 140
Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage → back through Terril 140 is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Terril 140 to Cité Saint-Paul
back through Terril 140 → Cité Saint-Paul is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.