Why this ride
A 75 km round trip from Fresnes-sur-Escaut - roughly 1 h 30 in the saddle. The stops in between: Paysage et ensemble miniers de Wallers-Are, Ensemble minier des Argales and back through Paysage et ensemble miniers de Wallers-Are.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ensemble minier de la Compagnie des Mines and Ensemble minier des Argales
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 75 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 30
- 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. Ensemble minier de la Compagnie des Mines
Fresnes-sur-Escaut sits right beside the Belgian border, on the river Escaut, which flows north into Belgium as the Scheldt. In 1720, so the story goes, coal was found here for the first time in the Nord, and that find began the transformation of the region. The Compagnie des Mines d'Anzin, founded later in the eighteenth century, became one of the largest industrial enterprises in France and helped create the landscape you ride through today.
Read the complete Ensemble minier de la Compagnie des Mines 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 Compagnie des Mines is where the day begins. Next is Paysage et ensemble miniers de Wallers-Are.
2. Paysage et ensemble miniers de Wallers-Are
Anyone who follows cycling knows the Trouée d'Arenberg, the arrow-straight cobbled lane through the forest near Wallers where Paris-Roubaix often breaks apart. What fewer know is that the lane passes the gate of a colliery, and that the colliery is one of the jewels of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin World Heritage Site. Fosse Arenberg, with its three steel headframes and brick engine houses, closed in 1989, and a few years later Claude Berri filmed his version of Zola's Germinal here, using the pithead and the cités around it as a ready-made nineteenth-century mining town.
Read the complete Paysage et ensemble miniers de Wallers-Are write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Paysage et ensemble miniers de Wallers-Are comes up about 19 km into the recorded legs. Next is Ensemble minier des Argales.
3. Ensemble minier des Argales
At Rieulay, in the middle of the Scarpe valley, the terril des Argales is one of the largest spoil heaps in France, a vast, flat-topped plateau of mining waste stretching for well over a kilometre. Once a stark, black wasteland, it has been transformed into a nature and leisure area, with a lake at its foot, trails, viewpoints and a nature reserve where rare plants and birds have found a home. The site, together with nearby mining remains, is part of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Mining Basin, listed by UNESCO in 2012.
Read the complete Ensemble minier des Argales write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 38 km into the recorded legs you reach Ensemble minier des Argales. Next is back through Paysage et ensemble miniers de Wallers-Are.
4. back through Paysage et ensemble miniers de Wallers-Are
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Paysage et ensemble miniers de Wallers-Are write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Paysage et ensemble miniers de Wallers-Are, late in the day. Next is Ensemble minier de la Compagnie des Mines.
5. Ensemble minier de la Compagnie des Mines
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ensemble minier de la Compagnie des Mines write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Ensemble minier de la Compagnie des Mines. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Ensemble minier de la Compagnie des Mines to Paysage et ensemble miniers de Wallers-Are
Ensemble minier de la Compagnie des Mines → Paysage et ensemble miniers de Wallers-Are is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Paysage et ensemble miniers de Wallers-Are to Ensemble minier des Argales
Paysage et ensemble miniers de Wallers-Are → Ensemble minier des Argales is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ensemble minier des Argales to back through Paysage et ensemble miniers de Wallers-Are
Ensemble minier des Argales → back through Paysage et ensemble miniers de Wallers-Are is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Paysage et ensemble miniers de Wallers-Are to Ensemble minier de la Compagnie des Mines
back through Paysage et ensemble miniers de Wallers-Are → Ensemble minier de la Compagnie des Mines is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.