Why this ride
72 km from Pecquencourt to Pecquencourt, about 1 h 22 of riding. It goes by way of Cités Chabaud-Latour ancienne et nouvelle, Cité du Rivage ancienne and back through Cités Chabaud-Latour ancienne et nouvelle.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ensemble minier des Argales and Cité du Rivage ancienne
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 72 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 22
- 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 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
Ensemble minier des Argales is where the day begins. Next is Cités Chabaud-Latour ancienne et nouvelle.
2. Cités Chabaud-Latour ancienne et nouvelle
Old and new: the label names two generations of company housing at Chabaud-Latour, and walking between them is a short lesson in how mining employers thought about their workers. The older cité is a grid of long brick rows, the corons of Zola's novels, packed close to the pit so that men could be at the shaft in minutes. The newer one, built later, spreads out in pairs and small groups of houses set in gardens, with wider streets and green space, part of a shift towards the garden-city ideal in the early twentieth century. Both belong to the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin World Heritage site.
Read the complete Cités Chabaud-Latour ancienne et nouvelle write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cités Chabaud-Latour ancienne et nouvelle comes up about 17 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cité du Rivage ancienne.
3. Cité du Rivage ancienne
Brick terraced houses, small gardens and a straight street running toward the Escaut: at first glance the Cité du Rivage in Bruay-sur-l'Escaut looks like any working-class neighbourhood in northern France. It is part of something much larger. In 2012, UNESCO listed the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin, a landscape of pit villages, headframes, slag heaps and railways stretching over a hundred kilometres, as a monument to three centuries of coal. This cité is one of its many fragments, an early housing development built by the mining companies to keep their workers close to the pits.
Read the complete Cité du Rivage ancienne 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 Cité du Rivage ancienne. Next is back through Cités Chabaud-Latour ancienne et nouvelle.
4. back through Cités Chabaud-Latour ancienne et nouvelle
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cités Chabaud-Latour ancienne et nouvelle write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Cités Chabaud-Latour ancienne et nouvelle, late in the day. Next is Ensemble minier des Argales.
5. Ensemble minier des Argales
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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
Back at Ensemble minier des Argales. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Ensemble minier des Argales to Cités Chabaud-Latour ancienne et nouvelle
Ensemble minier des Argales → Cités Chabaud-Latour ancienne et nouvelle is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cités Chabaud-Latour ancienne et nouvelle to Cité du Rivage ancienne
Cités Chabaud-Latour ancienne et nouvelle → Cité du Rivage ancienne is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité du Rivage ancienne to back through Cités Chabaud-Latour ancienne et nouvelle
Cité du Rivage ancienne → back through Cités Chabaud-Latour ancienne et nouvelle is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cités Chabaud-Latour ancienne et nouvelle to Ensemble minier des Argales
back through Cités Chabaud-Latour ancienne et nouvelle → Ensemble minier des Argales is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.