Why this ride
From Anzin it runs 245 km to Anzin; allow about 4 h 13 of riding. The stops in between: Cité Deblock, Belfort en Stadhuis and back through Cité Deblock. It crosses from France into Belgium - carry ID and check the toll rules.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Coron des 120 and Belfort en Stadhuis
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 245 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 13
- 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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Coron des 120
The Coron des 120 is among the most famous rows of miners' houses in France, partly because a film crew chose it. A coron is a long terrace of identical brick cottages built by a mining company, and this one, with its endless line of doors, chimneys and small gardens, was used in the 1993 film of Germinal, Zola's novel of the miners' strike. It lies near Anzin and Petite-Forêt, in the Valenciennes area, at the heart of the mining basin that UNESCO listed in 2012.
Read the complete Coron des 120 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Coron des 120 is where the day begins. Next is Cité Deblock.
2. Cité Deblock
Sallaumines is one of those towns that merges into its neighbours until you cannot tell where one stops, and the whole built-up band between Lens and Hénin-Beaumont is mining country. Cité Deblock is one of the company housing estates that went up in the twentieth century as the mines expanded, with brick houses in rows or pairs, gardens at the front and back, and a layout planned by engineers who believed good housing kept a workforce loyal. The UNESCO listing of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais mining basin in 2012 covers a number of such estates, because together they show how an entire society was built around coal.
Read the complete Cité Deblock write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cité Deblock comes up about 61 km into the recorded legs. Next is Belfort en Stadhuis.
3. Belfort en Stadhuis
British soldiers marching to the front in the First World War left Ypres by the road that led east towards Menen, and the gate they passed through became the Menin Gate, now a memorial bearing the names of more than fifty thousand soldiers with no known grave. Menen itself, about twenty kilometres from Ypres, sits right on the French border, on the river Leie, which the French call the Lys, and its town hall and belfry, standing on the market square, are part of the UNESCO listing of the belfries of Belgium and France. The belfry, like much of the town, was damaged in the war and rebuilt, and it remains the proud symbol of the town's civic history.
Read the complete Belfort en Stadhuis write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 123 km into the recorded legs you reach Belfort en Stadhuis. Next is back through Cité Deblock.
4. back through Cité Deblock
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité Deblock write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Cité Deblock, late in the day. Next is Coron des 120.
5. Coron des 120
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Coron des 120 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Coron des 120. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Coron des 120 to Cité Deblock
Coron des 120 → Cité Deblock is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité Deblock to Belfort en Stadhuis
Cité Deblock → Belfort en Stadhuis is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Belfort en Stadhuis to back through Cité Deblock
Belfort en Stadhuis → back through Cité Deblock is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cité Deblock to Coron des 120
back through Cité Deblock → Coron des 120 is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.