Why this ride
From Denain it runs 157 km to Denain; allow about 2 h 36 of riding. On the way it passes Fosse n°2 de Flines, Cité Saint-Paul, Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Lille and back through Cité Saint-Paul.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Cités Chabaud-Latour ancienne et nouvelle and Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Lille
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 157 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 36
- 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. Cités Chabaud-Latour ancienne et nouvelle
Old and new: the label names two generations of company housing at Chabaud-Latour, and walking between them is a short lesson in how mining employers thought about their workers. The older cité is a grid of long brick rows, the corons of Zola's novels, packed close to the pit so that men could be at the shaft in minutes. The newer one, built later, spreads out in pairs and small groups of houses set in gardens, with wider streets and green space, part of a shift towards the garden-city ideal in the early twentieth century. Both belong to the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin World Heritage site.
Read the complete Cités Chabaud-Latour ancienne et nouvelle write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cités Chabaud-Latour ancienne et nouvelle is where the day begins. Next is Fosse n°2 de Flines.
2. Fosse n°2 de Flines
The headframe is the giveaway. In the low, watery country between Lallaing, Anhiers and Flines-lez-Raches, the steel or concrete winding towers of old coal pits still stand as markers, and Fosse n°2 de Flines is one of the sites that recall the industry that shaped this corner of the Douai area. A fosse in the local vocabulary is a pit with its shafts, buildings and spoil heap, and around each one a small world grew: rows of brick housing, a church, a school, and the company offices that ran the lives of everyone underground and above it.
Read the complete Fosse n°2 de Flines write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Fosse n°2 de Flines comes up about 25 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cité Saint-Paul.
3. 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
about 50 km into the recorded legs you reach Cité Saint-Paul. Next is Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Lille.
4. Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Lille
Lille's town hall belfry is a child of the twentieth century. After the old town hall was lost, the architect Émile Dubuisson built a new one in the 1920s and early 1930s in a working-class district south of the centre, and its belfry, rising about 104 metres, is the tallest civic belfry in Europe. Built of reinforced concrete and brick in an Art Deco reinterpretation of the Flemish tradition, it is part of the UNESCO-listed Belfries of Belgium and France, a group that celebrates the towers built by towns to symbolise their freedom and civic pride.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Lille 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 de Lille, about halfway. Next is back through Cité Saint-Paul.
5. back through 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 through Cité Saint-Paul sits at 103 km, about halfway. Next is back through Fosse n°2 de Flines.
6. back through Fosse n°2 de Flines
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fosse n°2 de Flines write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Fosse n°2 de Flines comes up about 131 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cités Chabaud-Latour ancienne et nouvelle.
7. Cités Chabaud-Latour ancienne et nouvelle
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cités Chabaud-Latour ancienne et nouvelle write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cités Chabaud-Latour ancienne et nouvelle closes the day.
Leg by leg
Cités Chabaud-Latour ancienne et nouvelle to Fosse n°2 de Flines
Cités Chabaud-Latour ancienne et nouvelle → Fosse n°2 de Flines is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fosse n°2 de Flines to Cité Saint-Paul
Fosse n°2 de Flines → Cité Saint-Paul is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité Saint-Paul to Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Lille
Cité Saint-Paul → Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Lille is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Lille to back through Cité Saint-Paul
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Lille → back through Cité Saint-Paul is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cité Saint-Paul to back through Fosse n°2 de Flines
back through Cité Saint-Paul → back through Fosse n°2 de Flines is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fosse n°2 de Flines to Cités Chabaud-Latour ancienne et nouvelle
back through Fosse n°2 de Flines → Cités Chabaud-Latour ancienne et nouvelle is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.