Why this ride
A 76 km round trip from Pecquencourt - roughly 1 h 22 in the saddle. The stops in between: Fosse Mathilde, Cité du Rivage ancienne and back through Fosse Mathilde. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Cités Sainte-Marie and Cité du Rivage ancienne
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 76 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 22
- 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 Sainte-Marie
Pecquencourt sits on the edge of the Scarpe valley east of Douai, where the coal basin meets a land of marshes, ponds and forests, and the Cités Sainte-Marie are rows of miners' houses built for the workers of the nearby Sainte-Marie pit. Like many mining settlements, they follow a regular pattern, with brick houses in pairs or rows, gardens at the back and wide streets, designed by the company to house its workforce and keep them close to the pit. They are part of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin World Heritage site.
Read the complete Cités Sainte-Marie write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cités Sainte-Marie is where the day begins. Next is Fosse Mathilde.
2. Fosse Mathilde
Denain is remembered in French history for an afternoon in July 1712, when Marshal Villars crossed the Scheldt and smashed an allied army under Prince Eugene of Savoy, a victory that rescued France in the closing years of the War of the Spanish Succession and is still marked in the town. The Fosse Mathilde belongs to a later and quieter story. A fosse is the northern word for a pit, and these shafts were named for company directors and their families, so Mathilde was a lady before she was a hole in the ground.
Read the complete Fosse Mathilde write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Fosse Mathilde comes up about 17 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cité du Rivage ancienne.
3. Cité du Rivage ancienne
Brick terraced houses, small gardens and a straight street running toward the Escaut: at first glance the Cité du Rivage in Bruay-sur-l'Escaut looks like any working-class neighbourhood in northern France. It is part of something much larger. In 2012, UNESCO listed the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin, a landscape of pit villages, headframes, slag heaps and railways stretching over a hundred kilometres, as a monument to three centuries of coal. This cité is one of its many fragments, an early housing development built by the mining companies to keep their workers close to the pits.
Read the complete Cité du Rivage ancienne write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 40 km into the recorded legs you reach Cité du Rivage ancienne. Next is back through Fosse Mathilde.
4. back through Fosse Mathilde
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fosse Mathilde write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Fosse Mathilde, late in the day. Next is Cités Sainte-Marie.
5. Cités Sainte-Marie
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cités Sainte-Marie write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Cités Sainte-Marie. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Cités Sainte-Marie to Fosse Mathilde
Cités Sainte-Marie → Fosse Mathilde is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fosse Mathilde to Cité du Rivage ancienne
Fosse Mathilde → Cité du Rivage ancienne is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité du Rivage ancienne to back through Fosse Mathilde
Cité du Rivage ancienne → back through Fosse Mathilde is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fosse Mathilde to Cités Sainte-Marie
back through Fosse Mathilde → Cités Sainte-Marie is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.