Why this ride
151 km from Barlin to Barlin, about 2 h 50 of riding. The stops in between: Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune, Cité du Moulin, Terril 140 and Cité Saint-Paul.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7 and Cité Saint-Paul
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 151 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 50
- 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 fosse n°7
Picture a pit village at six in the morning in 1950: men walking to the headframe with their lunch tins, the siren calling the shift, the women already up and stoking the stoves, children getting ready for the company school. The ensemble around Fosse n°7, near Maisnil-lès-Ruitz and Barlin, preserves the setting for that daily routine: the pit buildings, the housing, the paths between them, and the terril rising nearby. It was a self-contained world, owned and run by the mining company, which provided houses, coal for heating, schools, churches and even doctors, in exchange for loyalty and hard work. The site is one of the many components of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin on the UNESCO list.
Read the complete Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7 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 fosse n°7 is where the day begins. Next is Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune.
2. Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune
Béthune was a mining town on the edge of the Artois, and Pit Number 9 of the Béthune company is one of the surviving complexes that UNESCO included in its listing of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin. A mining complex is more than a hole in the ground: there were the winding house and headframe, the screening and washing plants, the offices, the baths where miners scrubbed off the coal dust, the stables for the pit ponies and the railway sidings, and many of these structures stand near Vermelles. Brick, steel and slag dominate the scene, and a sense of effort and anonymity hangs over it.
Read the complete Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune comes up about 21 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cité du Moulin.
3. Cité du Moulin
Around Lens the slag heaps rise from the plain like a chain of black pyramids, and the twin cones at Loos-en-Gohelle, among the highest in Europe, are visible for miles. The Cité du Moulin sits in this landscape at Fouquières-lès-Lens, next to Harnes and Billy-Montigny, one of the pit villages built by the mining companies and now part of the UNESCO-listed mining basin. It is a quiet residential area today, but its streets tell the story of the coalfield's most terrible moment.
Read the complete Cité du Moulin write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 42 km into the recorded legs you reach Cité du Moulin. Next is Terril 140.
4. Terril 140
Rising out of the flat fields north of Douai, the black, cone-shaped hill of Terril 140 is not a natural feature at all: it is a heap of mining waste, the spoil left over from decades of coal extraction. The mining basin of Nord-Pas-de-Calais, listed by UNESCO in 2012 as a cultural landscape, is studded with hundreds of these terrils, some flat-topped, some pointed, and together with the pitheads, workers' housing and railways they tell the story of an industry that shaped the region for nearly three centuries.
Read the complete Terril 140 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Terril 140, about halfway. Next is Cité Saint-Paul.
5. Cité Saint-Paul
The mining basin of northern France is a flat, open country that seems to have been built entirely by hand, and among the first things you notice are the hills that nature never put there. They are the terrils, the slag heaps of the coal mines, some of them more than a hundred metres high, and around Courrières they punctuate the horizon between rows of brick houses. The Cité Saint-Paul belongs to this world: a miners' housing estate, laid out by the mining company with its rows of uniform houses, gardens, schools and a church, so that a worker could live, shop and pray within the company's reach.
Read the complete Cité Saint-Paul write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cité Saint-Paul sits at 67 km, about halfway. Next is back through Terril 140.
6. back through Terril 140
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Terril 140 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Terril 140 comes up about 99 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Cité du Moulin.
7. back through Cité du Moulin
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité du Moulin write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 116 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Cité du Moulin. Next is back through Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune.
8. back through Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune, late in the day. Next is Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7.
9. Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7 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 151 km.
Leg by leg
Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7 to Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune
Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7 → Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune to Cité du Moulin
Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune → Cité du Moulin is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité du Moulin to Terril 140
Cité du Moulin → Terril 140 is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Terril 140 to Cité Saint-Paul
Terril 140 → Cité Saint-Paul is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité Saint-Paul to back through Terril 140
Cité Saint-Paul → back through Terril 140 is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Terril 140 to back through Cité du Moulin
back through Terril 140 → back through Cité du Moulin is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cité du Moulin to back through Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune
back through Cité du Moulin → back through Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune to Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7
back through Ensemble minier du n°9 de Béthune → Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7 is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.