Why this ride
A 135 km round trip from Bruay-la-Buissière - roughly 2 h 09 in the saddle. On the way it passes Temple protestant, Cités de la Justice et du Moulin, Chevalement du n°3 bis de Lens and back through Cités de la Justice et du Moulin.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Hôtel de ville and Chevalement du n°3 bis de Lens
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 135 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 09
- 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. Hôtel de ville
Bruay-la-Buissière is a mining town that grew from almost nothing into a busy industrial centre in less than a century, and its town hall, an imposing building in the heart of town, is a statement of that civic pride. The label points to the Hôtel de ville, one of the many urban and public buildings of the mining era that are part of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin World Heritage site. It sits on the western end of the coalfield, where the plain begins to rise towards the chalk hills of Artois.
Read the complete Hôtel de ville write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Hôtel de ville is where the day begins. Next is Temple protestant.
2. Temple protestant
Liévin is a town of thirty-four thousand people that grew up around coal, and the Protestant temple on its streets is a small reminder of how mixed the mining population was. The pits drew workers from Belgium, Poland, Italy and North Africa as well as from the French countryside, and the mining companies built churches, schools, shops and entire districts for them. In a region that was overwhelmingly Catholic, a temple stood a little apart, and its quiet presence says something about the way the basin took in newcomers.
Read the complete Temple protestant write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Temple protestant comes up about 22 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cités de la Justice et du Moulin.
3. 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
about 45 km into the recorded legs you reach Cités de la Justice et du Moulin. Next is Chevalement du n°3 bis de Lens.
4. Chevalement du n°3 bis de Lens
A headframe is the most honest piece of architecture in a mining country, because it exists only to hold up a wheel. The chevalement of Pit 3 bis at Lens is one of those tall, simple frames of concrete or steel, once used to raise coal and men from hundreds of metres underground, and it is now one of the markers of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Mining Basin, listed by UNESCO in 2012 as a living cultural landscape. At the height of the industry, hundreds of such frames stood on this flat country, and the sky was filled with smoke and steam.
Read the complete Chevalement du n°3 bis de Lens write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Chevalement du n°3 bis de Lens, about halfway. Next is back through Cités de la Justice et du Moulin.
5. 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 sits at 98 km, about halfway. Next is back through Temple protestant.
6. back through Temple protestant
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Temple protestant write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Temple protestant comes up about 112 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hôtel de ville.
7. Hôtel de ville
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hôtel de ville write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Hôtel de ville closes the day.
Leg by leg
Hôtel de ville to Temple protestant
Hôtel de ville → Temple protestant is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Temple protestant to Cités de la Justice et du Moulin
Temple protestant → Cités de la Justice et du Moulin is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cités de la Justice et du Moulin to Chevalement du n°3 bis de Lens
Cités de la Justice et du Moulin → Chevalement du n°3 bis de Lens is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chevalement du n°3 bis de Lens to back through Cités de la Justice et du Moulin
Chevalement du n°3 bis de Lens → back through Cités de la Justice et du Moulin is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cités de la Justice et du Moulin to back through Temple protestant
back through Cités de la Justice et du Moulin → back through Temple protestant is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Temple protestant to Hôtel de ville
back through Temple protestant → Hôtel de ville is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.