Why this ride
From Denain it runs 267 km to Denain; allow about 4 h 10 of riding. On the way it passes Cités de la Justice et du Moulin, Cité n°10, Terril 34 and Cité n°2. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Fosse Mathilde and Cité n°2
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 267 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 10
- 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. Fosse Mathilde
Denain is remembered in French history for an afternoon in July 1712, when Marshal Villars crossed the Scheldt and smashed an allied army under Prince Eugene of Savoy, a victory that rescued France in the closing years of the War of the Spanish Succession and is still marked in the town. The Fosse Mathilde belongs to a later and quieter story. A fosse is the northern word for a pit, and these shafts were named for company directors and their families, so Mathilde was a lady before she was a hole in the ground.
Read the complete Fosse Mathilde write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Fosse Mathilde is where the day begins. Next is Cités de la Justice et du Moulin.
2. Cités de la Justice et du Moulin
For almost three centuries, coal shaped the land between Valenciennes and Béthune in northern France, creating a landscape of pits, slag heaps, railway lines and miners' housing estates. The Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2012, and the Cités de la Justice et du Moulin in Auby are part of it: rows of brick houses built by the mining companies to house their workers, with gardens, churches, schools and shops, all organised around the pit. The cités are still inhabited, so treat them as neighbourhoods rather than museums.
Read the complete Cités de la Justice et du Moulin write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cités de la Justice et du Moulin comes up about 32 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cité n°10.
3. Cité n°10
Sains-en-Gohelle is a former coal town in the heart of the Nord-Pas de Calais mining basin, and Cité n°10 is one of its old mining estates, rows of brick houses built for miners and their families around a pithead. The basin, which stretches about 120 kilometres from the Belgian border towards the west, was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012, and the cités, the slag heaps and the headframes are its most visible remains.
Read the complete Cité n°10 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 63 km into the recorded legs you reach Cité n°10. Next is Terril 34.
4. Terril 34
A terril is a slag heap, a mountain of waste rock dumped beside a coal mine, and in the flat land of northern France these man-made hills are the closest thing to relief for miles around. Terril 34 is one of hundreds that dot the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Mining Basin, a UNESCO site since 2012, which recognises not only the heaps but also the pithead frames, miners' housing estates, schools, churches and railway lines that made up the landscape of coal mining in the region for nearly three centuries. This one sits near Norrent-Fontes and Lillers, at the western end of the basin, where it meets the chalk hills of Artois.
Read the complete Terril 34 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Terril 34, about halfway. Next is Cité n°2.
5. Cité n°2
Mazingarbe is a small town on the northern edge of the mining basin, with the terraced rows of a miners' cité running down streets of red brick, and nearly twelve thousand people live in neighbouring Bully-les-Mines. The Cité Foch and the Cité Bellevue are two of the estates that mark this stretch of the basin on the map. The cité, built by the coal company for its workers, usually came with a school, a church, a company shop and a community hall, so that the pit shaped a whole life.
Read the complete Cité n°2 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cité n°2 sits at 142 km, about halfway. Next is back through Terril 34.
6. back through Terril 34
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Terril 34 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Terril 34 comes up about 167 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Cité n°10.
7. back through Cité n°10
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité n°10 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 203 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Cité n°10. Next is back through Cités de la Justice et du Moulin.
8. back through Cités de la Justice et du Moulin
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cités de la Justice et du Moulin write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Cités de la Justice et du Moulin, late in the day. Next is Fosse Mathilde.
9. Fosse Mathilde
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fosse Mathilde 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 267 km.
Leg by leg
Fosse Mathilde to Cités de la Justice et du Moulin
Fosse Mathilde → Cités de la Justice et du Moulin is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cités de la Justice et du Moulin to Cité n°10
Cités de la Justice et du Moulin → Cité n°10 is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité n°10 to Terril 34
Cité n°10 → Terril 34 is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Terril 34 to Cité n°2
Terril 34 → Cité n°2 is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité n°2 to back through Terril 34
Cité n°2 → back through Terril 34 is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Terril 34 to back through Cité n°10
back through Terril 34 → back through Cité n°10 is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cité n°10 to back through Cités de la Justice et du Moulin
back through Cité n°10 → back through Cités de la Justice et du Moulin is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cités de la Justice et du Moulin to Fosse Mathilde
back through Cités de la Justice et du Moulin → Fosse Mathilde is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
More motorcycle rides nearby
- Fosse Delloye and Cité n°2 · 268 km
- Terril Renard and Cité n°2 · 264 km
- Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu and Cité n°2 · 264 km
- Cité Crombez and Cité des Soeurs · 66 km