Why this ride
70 km from Auby to Auby, about 1 h 08 of riding. It goes by way of Cité Deblock, Cité d’Auchy and back through Cité Deblock.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Cités de la Justice et du Moulin and Cité d’Auchy
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 70 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 08
- 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 de la Justice et du Moulin
For almost three centuries, coal shaped the land between Valenciennes and Béthune in northern France, creating a landscape of pits, slag heaps, railway lines and miners' housing estates. The Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2012, and the Cités de la Justice et du Moulin in Auby are part of it: rows of brick houses built by the mining companies to house their workers, with gardens, churches, schools and shops, all organised around the pit. The cités are still inhabited, so treat them as neighbourhoods rather than museums.
Read the complete Cités de la Justice et du Moulin write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cités de la Justice et du Moulin is where the day begins. Next is Cité Deblock.
2. Cité Deblock
Sallaumines is one of those towns that merges into its neighbours until you cannot tell where one stops, and the whole built-up band between Lens and Hénin-Beaumont is mining country. Cité Deblock is one of the company housing estates that went up in the twentieth century as the mines expanded, with brick houses in rows or pairs, gardens at the front and back, and a layout planned by engineers who believed good housing kept a workforce loyal. The UNESCO listing of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais mining basin in 2012 covers a number of such estates, because together they show how an entire society was built around coal.
Read the complete Cité Deblock write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cité Deblock comes up about 17 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cité d’Auchy.
3. Cité d’Auchy
Rows of identical brick houses with small gardens, laid out in straight lines or gentle curves, each with its own vegetable plot and outhouse: the cité at Auchy-les-Mines is a textbook example of the miners' housing built by mining companies in northern France. The companies provided homes, schools, churches and shops, both to attract workers and to control them, and the cités, with their distinctive layouts and architecture, are a central part of the World Heritage listing of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin.
Read the complete Cité d’Auchy write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 36 km into the recorded legs you reach Cité d’Auchy. Next is back through Cité Deblock.
4. back through Cité Deblock
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité Deblock write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Cité Deblock, late in the day. Next is Cités de la Justice et du Moulin.
5. Cités de la Justice et du Moulin
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cités de la Justice et du Moulin write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Cités de la Justice et du Moulin. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Cités de la Justice et du Moulin to Cité Deblock
Cités de la Justice et du Moulin → Cité Deblock is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité Deblock to Cité d’Auchy
Cité Deblock → Cité d’Auchy is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité d’Auchy to back through Cité Deblock
Cité d’Auchy → back through Cité Deblock is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cité Deblock to Cités de la Justice et du Moulin
back through Cité Deblock → Cités de la Justice et du Moulin is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.