Why this ride
A 64 km round trip from Houdain - roughly 1 h 10 in the saddle. On the way it passes Monument du soldat Marche, Camus Haut and back through Monument du soldat Marche. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Cités de la Victoire et des Arbres and Camus Haut
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 64 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 10
- 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 Victoire et des Arbres
Houdain is a mining town in the Pas-de-Calais, a couple of kilometres from Bruay and a short hop from Béthune, and its workers' estates carry names that read like a municipal promise: Victory and Trees. They belong to the western end of the northern French coalfield, which stretches in a long band across the Nord and Pas-de-Calais and which was the engine of the region for more than two centuries. Here the company built housing on a scale that still surprises. Whole districts of identical brick houses, each with its own garden plot, were laid out in rows and crescents, so that miners and their families would live close to the pit and under the eye of their employer.
Read the complete Cités de la Victoire et des Arbres write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cités de la Victoire et des Arbres is where the day begins. Next is Monument du soldat Marche.
2. Monument du soldat Marche
Bully-les-Mines lies just below the long ridge of Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, where the great French military cemetery overlooks the coalfield, and the juxtaposition says something about this part of France. The land around is a battlefield and a mining basin at the same time. In 1914 and 1915 the front line ran through here, and the villages were shattered. After the war they were rebuilt, and the new mining estates, the cités de la Victoire and des Arbres, took names that spoke of recovery.
Read the complete Monument du soldat Marche write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Monument du soldat Marche comes up about 17 km into the recorded legs. Next is Camus Haut.
3. Camus Haut
Camus Haut lies on the eastern edge of the mining basin, near Annay, Pont-à-Vendin and Harnes, where the canalised Deûle carries barges north towards Lille. The label refers to one of the many mining sites and cités of the area, and while the exact spot is hard to identify from a distance, the landscape tells you what kind of place it is: brick housing estates, old pit heads, spoil heaps going green, and the wide, flat horizon of the Gohelle.
Read the complete Camus Haut write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 32 km into the recorded legs you reach Camus Haut. Next is back through Monument du soldat Marche.
4. back through Monument du soldat Marche
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Monument du soldat Marche write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Monument du soldat Marche, late in the day. Next is Cités de la Victoire et des Arbres.
5. Cités de la Victoire et des Arbres
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cités de la Victoire et des Arbres 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 Victoire et des Arbres. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Cités de la Victoire et des Arbres to Monument du soldat Marche
Cités de la Victoire et des Arbres → Monument du soldat Marche is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Monument du soldat Marche to Camus Haut
Monument du soldat Marche → Camus Haut is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Camus Haut to back through Monument du soldat Marche
Camus Haut → back through Monument du soldat Marche is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Monument du soldat Marche to Cités de la Victoire et des Arbres
back through Monument du soldat Marche → Cités de la Victoire et des Arbres is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.