Why this ride
From Roost-Warendin it runs 152 km to Roost-Warendin; allow about 2 h 36 of riding. On the way it passes Cité de la Parisienne, Cité de la Gare, Cité Crombez and Gare de Lens.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ensemble minier de la Belleforière and Gare de Lens
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 152 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 36
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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. Ensemble minier de la Belleforière
Roost-Warendin, Waziers and Râches sit just north of Douai, where the old Scarpe floodplain met the coal seams, and the Belleforière mining ensemble is one of the clusters that shows how a pit site was organised. Shafts, buildings, workers' housing and spoil heaps were laid out together, with the railway linking them all, and in a few places the ensemble survives well enough that you can read it on the ground. Part of the regional mining landscape listed by UNESCO in 2012, it is a good example of how coal companies planned whole villages around their extraction.
Read the complete Ensemble minier de la Belleforière write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Ensemble minier de la Belleforière is where the day begins. Next is Cité de la Parisienne.
2. Cité de la Parisienne
Drocourt is the sort of place you could ride through without a second glance, and you would miss a small piece of the story of northern France. The Cité de la Parisienne is a mining housing estate on the edge of the town, a grid of brick houses built by the coal company for its workers and their families, part of the UNESCO-listed Mining Basin. The name comes from the company that dug coal here. Hénin-Beaumont and Rouvroy press in on either side, and the black cones of the slag heaps rise above the rooftops.
Read the complete Cité de la Parisienne write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cité de la Parisienne comes up 17 km in. Next is Cité de la Gare.
3. Cité de la Gare
Wingles is a small town of nearly nine thousand people on the southern edge of the Lens coalfield, and its Cité de la Gare takes its name from the railway station that once carried coal away. This is the logistics of the mining basin laid bare: pit, rail, canal and village. The coal came up the shafts, was hauled to the sorting plants and loaded on trains that ran to the factories of the north and the ports of the Channel, while the people who dug it lived in neat brick rows within sight of the headframes.
Read the complete Cité de la Gare write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
34 km in you reach Cité de la Gare. Next is Cité Crombez.
4. Cité Crombez
Cité Crombez is a miners' settlement at Noyelles-Godault, on the eastern edge of Hénin-Beaumont, in the heart of the old coal basin between Lens and Douai. Built by the mining company to house its workers, it has the classic layout of brick houses, gardens and straight streets, and it is part of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin World Heritage site. Today it is a quiet residential area, surrounded by shopping centres, motorways and the remains of heavy industry.
Read the complete Cité Crombez write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cité Crombez, about halfway. Next is Gare de Lens.
5. Gare de Lens
Lens station looks like a locomotive, which is exactly what its architects intended. The Art Deco building, completed in the 1920s to replace a station destroyed in the First World War, has a long low front with a tall central block that suggests a train at speed, and its brick and stone are laid out with real flair. Inside and out it was designed to tell people that this was a town that had survived and meant to thrive, and few stations of its date achieve the effect so well.
Read the complete Gare de Lens write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Gare de Lens sits at 67 km, about halfway. Next is back through Cité Crombez.
6. back through Cité Crombez
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité Crombez write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Cité Crombez comes up 84 km in. Next is back through Cité de la Gare.
7. back through Cité de la Gare
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité de la Gare write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
101 km in you reach back through Cité de la Gare. Next is back through Cité de la Parisienne.
8. back through Cité de la Parisienne
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité de la Parisienne write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Cité de la Parisienne, late in the day. Next is Ensemble minier de la Belleforière.
9. Ensemble minier de la Belleforière
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ensemble minier de la Belleforière write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 152 km.
Leg by leg
Ensemble minier de la Belleforière to Cité de la Parisienne
Ensemble minier de la Belleforière → Cité de la Parisienne is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité de la Parisienne to Cité de la Gare
Cité de la Parisienne → Cité de la Gare is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité de la Gare to Cité Crombez
Cité de la Gare → Cité Crombez is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité Crombez to Gare de Lens
Cité Crombez → Gare de Lens is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Gare de Lens to back through Cité Crombez
Gare de Lens → back through Cité Crombez is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cité Crombez to back through Cité de la Gare
back through Cité Crombez → back through Cité de la Gare is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cité de la Gare to back through Cité de la Parisienne
back through Cité de la Gare → back through Cité de la Parisienne is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cité de la Parisienne to Ensemble minier de la Belleforière
back through Cité de la Parisienne → Ensemble minier de la Belleforière is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.