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: 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.
A 349 km round trip from Anzin - roughly 6 h 01 in the saddle. The stops in between: Major Mining Sites of Wallonia, Beffroi de Thuin, Beffroi de Gembloux and Sint-Germanuskerk met Stadstoren. It crosses from France into Belgium - carry ID and check the toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Coron des 120 is where the day begins. Next is Major Mining Sites of Wallonia.
Grand-Hornu, on the edge of the Borinage coalfield west of Mons, looks less like a coal mine than a neoclassical palace. In the early nineteenth century the industrialist Henri De Gorge built it as a model colliery, with workshops, offices and stables arranged around a vast oval courtyard of brick arches, and hundreds of houses for workers, each with its own garden, laid out in streets around it. It was a revolutionary idea at the time, combining industry and housing in one planned complex. Mining ended in the mid-twentieth century, and after years of neglect the site was restored. Today it houses a museum of contemporary art and a design centre, and it is one of the four Major Mining Sites of Wallonia listed by UNESCO in 2012.
Read the complete Major Mining Sites of Wallonia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Major Mining Sites of Wallonia comes up about 34 km into the recorded legs. Next is Beffroi de Thuin.
Thuin sits on a rocky spur above the Sambre, and from the river it looks like a town that climbed a hill to keep its feet dry. At the top stands the belfry, a tall square tower with an onion-shaped spire that was originally the bell tower of a collegiate church and survived when the church itself did not. Since 1999 it has been part of the UNESCO listing of belfries of Belgium and France, a reminder that towns in this region measured their freedom in bells, towers and charters.
Read the complete Beffroi de Thuin write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 79 km into the recorded legs you reach Beffroi de Thuin. Next is Beffroi de Gembloux.
Gembloux grew up around a Benedictine abbey founded in the tenth century, and for most of its history the monks ran the show. The abbey buildings, rebuilt in a grand classical style in the eighteenth century, now house a university faculty of agricultural sciences, fitting for a town surrounded by some of the richest farmland in Belgium. The belfry, a solid tower that was once part of a church and later became the town's civic symbol, stands in the centre and is part of the UNESCO listing of belfries of Belgium and France. Climbing it gives views over the rooftops and across the open fields of the Hesbaye.
Read the complete Beffroi de Gembloux write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Beffroi de Gembloux, about halfway. Next is Sint-Germanuskerk met Stadstoren.
Tienen means sugar to most Belgians. The town in the east of Flemish Brabant has been the home of Belgium's largest sugar refinery since the nineteenth century, and the smell of sugar beet being processed hangs over the town in autumn during the campaign, when trucks loaded with beets roll in from the surrounding fields. The Sint-Germanuskerk, the church of Saint Germanus, with its massive tower serving as the town's belfry, stands near the huge Grote Markt, one of the largest market squares in Belgium, and it is part of the UNESCO listing of the belfries of Belgium and France. The tower, a mix of Romanesque and Gothic, has a carillon whose bells ring out over the town.
Read the complete Sint-Germanuskerk met Stadstoren write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sint-Germanuskerk met Stadstoren sits at 175 km, about halfway. Next is back through Beffroi de Gembloux.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Beffroi de Gembloux write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Beffroi de Gembloux comes up about 218 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Beffroi de Thuin.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Beffroi de Thuin write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 269 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Beffroi de Thuin. Next is back through Major Mining Sites of Wallonia.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Major Mining Sites of Wallonia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Major Mining Sites of Wallonia, late in the day. Next is Coron des 120.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Coron des 120 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 349 km.
Coron des 120 → Major Mining Sites of Wallonia is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Major Mining Sites of Wallonia → Beffroi de Thuin is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de Thuin → Beffroi de Gembloux is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de Gembloux → Sint-Germanuskerk met Stadstoren is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sint-Germanuskerk met Stadstoren → back through Beffroi de Gembloux is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Beffroi de Gembloux → back through Beffroi de Thuin is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Beffroi de Thuin → back through Major Mining Sites of Wallonia is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Major Mining Sites of Wallonia → Coron des 120 is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.