Why this ride
70 km from Bruay-la-Buissière to Bruay-la-Buissière, about 1 h 28 of riding. It goes by way of Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur, Camus Haut and back through Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs and Camus Haut
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 70 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 28
- 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 du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs
The coal companies were not short of optimism when they named their housing. In Bruay-la-Buissière, two neighbouring cités were called the New World and the Flowers, and their brick houses with front gardens, laid out along tidy streets, were meant to sell a better life to the families who came from across France, Poland, Italy and North Africa to work the pits. They belong to the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin World Heritage Site, and they remain ordinary homes, so look respectfully.
Read the complete Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs is where the day begins. Next is Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur.
2. Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur
Mining companies built for rank as well as for need. The ordinary miners got brick cottages in terraces, but the engineers and directors got something grander, detached houses with larger gardens and, for the top man, a house that was called a château and looked like one. Château Mercier at Mazingarbe belongs to that tradition, and the ride titles pair it with the engineers' houses. A walk through the old cité shows you the whole hierarchy of a company town in a few hundred metres, from the pit and the cottages to the engineers' row and the director's lawn. UNESCO's 2012 listing of the mining basin covers this social geography as much as the machinery.
Read the complete Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur comes up about 19 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 35 km into the recorded legs you reach Camus Haut. Next is back through Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur.
4. back through Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur, late in the day. Next is Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs.
5. Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs 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 Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs to Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur
Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs → Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur to Camus Haut
Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur → Camus Haut is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Camus Haut to back through Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur
Camus Haut → back through Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur to Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs
back through Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur → Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.