Cités de la Clochette et Notre-Dame and Monument aux morts 1914-1918

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Cités de la Clochette et Notre-Dame

   Douai is a handsome old town on the river Scarpe, and its belfry is the thing to look for. The tall Gothic tower, topped with a lion, rises above the town hall and holds a carillon of bells, and it is one of the belfries of Belgium and France that UNESCO listed together. Every July the town stages a big parade of giants, huge wicker figures carried through the streets that represent Gayant, a giant from local legend, with his wife and children, a tradition that dates back centuries and which UNESCO recognises as intangible heritage. The Chartreuse museum, in a former monastery, holds paintings and sculpture from the town's long history.

   Read the complete Cités de la Clochette et Notre-Dame write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Cités de la Clochette et Notre-Dame is where the day begins. Next is Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi.

2. 2. Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi

   Flat country hides its stories well, and the strip of land around Vendin-le-Vieil, Pont-à-Vendin and Annay looks at first like any other piece of French Flanders suburbia: rows of brick houses, a canal, a few fields, a tangle of roads. Look again and the pattern reveals itself. The terraced streets are company housing, laid out by mining firms for their workers, and the low hills on the horizon are not hills at all but spoil heaps from the pits that once ran under this ground. The whole Nord-Pas de Calais coal basin was listed by UNESCO in 2012 as a living cultural landscape, and the area around Auchy-les-Mines and its neighbours is part of that long chain of pits, cités and terrils stretching across the north of France.

   Read the complete Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi comes up about 25 km into the recorded legs. Next is Beffroi de Béthune.

3. 3. Beffroi de Béthune

   The belfry of Béthune has been standing in the middle of the Grand Place since the fourteenth century, and it has survived more than most of the buildings around it. In 1918 the town centre was almost completely destroyed by German shelling, and the square was rebuilt in the 1920s in a mix of Flemish and Art Deco styles, with tall, ornate façades in brick and stone around the old tower. The belfry, a symbol of the town's ancient freedoms, is part of the UNESCO listing of belfries of Belgium and France, and climbing its stairs gives a fine view over the rooftops and the flat land around.

   Read the complete Beffroi de Béthune write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 58 km into the recorded legs you reach Beffroi de Béthune. Next is Monument aux morts 1914-1918.

4. 4. Monument aux morts 1914-1918

   Lens is a mining town that was flattened in the First World War and rebuilt in brick, and the monument to the dead of 1914 to 1918 stands as a reminder of what happened here. Lines of trenches ran across this plain for years, and the surrounding ridges, Vimy and Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, were the scene of huge battles. At Vimy, the great white Canadian memorial stands on the ridge, commemorating the attack of April 1917 in which Canadian troops took the hill, and the preserved trenches and tunnels can be visited. At Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, a vast French military cemetery and a lantern tower hold the remains of tens of thousands of soldiers. They are quiet places, and the silence is part of the experience.

   Read the complete Monument aux morts 1914-1918 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Monument aux morts 1914-1918, about halfway. Next is back through Beffroi de Béthune.

5. 5. back through Beffroi de Béthune

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Beffroi de Béthune write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Beffroi de Béthune sits at 99 km, about halfway. Next is back through Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi.

6. 6. back through Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi comes up about 139 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cités de la Clochette et Notre-Dame.

7. 7. Cités de la Clochette et Notre-Dame

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Cités de la Clochette et Notre-Dame write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Cités de la Clochette et Notre-Dame closes the day.