CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
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.
263 km from Fresnes-sur-Escaut to Fresnes-sur-Escaut, about 3 h 49 of riding. It goes by way of Paysage et ensemble miniers de Drocourt, Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Aire-sur-la and back through Paysage et ensemble miniers de Drocourt. The line favours views over speed.
In 1757, a group of aristocrats and entrepreneurs founded the Compagnie des Mines d'Anzin to work the coal seams found under the plains near Valenciennes. It grew into one of the largest industrial companies in France, owning dozens of pits, thousands of workers' houses and its own schools, churches and shops. The ensemble here at Fresnes-sur-Escaut, close to the Belgian border, includes buildings connected with the company's long history, and it is part of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin World Heritage site.
Read the complete Compagnie des Mines d’Anzin: Ensemble comm write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Compagnie des Mines d’Anzin: Ensemble comm is where the day begins. Next is Paysage et ensemble miniers de Drocourt.
Drocourt lies in the middle of the basin, between Lens and Douai, and its landscape tells the story of coal on a human scale. The pit-head frames and brick buildings of the old shafts, the spoil heaps sprouting trees and the long rows of miners' houses lie almost within sight of one another, and together they are listed as part of the UNESCO Mining Basin. Nearby is the old pumping house at the Sarteau shaft, a reminder that water was always the miners' enemy, and that huge machines had to keep the workings dry day and night.
Read the complete Paysage et ensemble miniers de Drocourt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Paysage et ensemble miniers de Drocourt comes up about 72 km into the recorded legs. Next is Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Aire-sur-la-.
Aire-sur-la-Lys is the kind of small French town that rewards a slow walk with no plan. Its belfry rises from the eighteenth-century town hall on the Grand Place, an elegant classical building topped by a tall tower with a lantern and a carillon, and it is part of the UNESCO listing of belfries of Belgium and France. Across the square stands the Bailliage, a richly decorated Renaissance building from around 1600, with arches, carved figures and a little loggia, which once housed the guard and the town's officials. A few streets away, the great collegiate church of Saint-Pierre, built in a flamboyant Gothic style, rises above the rooftops.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Aire-sur-la- write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 131 km into the recorded legs you reach Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Aire-sur-la-. Next is back through Paysage et ensemble miniers de Drocourt.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Paysage et ensemble miniers de Drocourt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Paysage et ensemble miniers de Drocourt, late in the day. Next is Compagnie des Mines d’Anzin: Ensemble comm.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Compagnie des Mines d’Anzin: Ensemble comm write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Compagnie des Mines d’Anzin: Ensemble comm. That is the ride.
Compagnie des Mines d’Anzin: Ensemble comm → Paysage et ensemble miniers de Drocourt is 72 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Paysage et ensemble miniers de Drocourt → Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Aire-sur-la- is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Aire-sur-la- → back through Paysage et ensemble miniers de Drocourt is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Paysage et ensemble miniers de Drocourt → Compagnie des Mines d’Anzin: Ensemble comm is 72 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.