Why this ride
From Aniche it runs 60 km to Aniche; allow about 1 h 02 of riding. The stops in between: Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu, Château Dampierre and back through Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage and Château Dampierre
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 60 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 02
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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 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
Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage is where the day begins. Next is Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu.
2. Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu
Lourches is a small mining town in the Nord department, on the banks of the Escaut river, between Denain and Valenciennes, in the heart of the old coal mining basin that stretched across northern France. The memorial named after Charles Mathieu is one of the elements listed as part of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Mining Basin UNESCO site, alongside pitheads, slag heaps, miners' housing and the buildings of the mining companies.
Read the complete Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu comes up 17 km in. Next is Château Dampierre.
3. Château Dampierre
Anzin, on the northern edge of Valenciennes, is where coal mining in northern France began on an industrial scale. In the eighteenth century, the Compagnie des mines d'Anzin became one of the largest companies in France, and its mines, workers' housing, slag heaps and buildings shaped the landscape of the region. Château Dampierre is one of the buildings linked to that history, and it is part of the UNESCO listing of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin, inscribed in 2012, which preserves more than a hundred sites across a vast area: pits, headframes, miners' cités, churches, schools and the great black spoil heaps known as terrils. The big miners' strike at Anzin in 1884 helped inspire Émile Zola's novel Germinal.
Read the complete Château Dampierre write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
33 km in you reach Château Dampierre. Next is back through Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu.
4. back through Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu, late in the day. Next is Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage.
5. Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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
Back at Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage to Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu
Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage → Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu to Château Dampierre
Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu → Château Dampierre is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Château Dampierre to back through Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu
Château Dampierre → back through Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu to Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage
back through Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu → Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.