Why this ride
275 km from Achicourt to Achicourt, about 4 h 33 of riding. The stops in between: Cité du Pont, Chevalement du Vieux-Deux, Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi and Cité Barrois. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
La citadella d’Arras and Cité Barrois
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 275 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 33
- 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. La citadella d’Arras
The people of Arras call their citadel la belle inutile, the beautiful useless one, and they say it with affection. Vauban built it in the late seventeenth century, after Louis XIV took Artois from Spain, as part of the chain of fortresses meant to lock France's northern border. Its star-shaped ramparts, bastions and moats are textbook Vauban, but the border moved north before the fortress ever saw a serious siege, hence the nickname. It is one of the twelve sites grouped as the Fortifications of Vauban on the UNESCO list since 2008. Its later history is darker: during the Second World War, the Germans executed resistance fighters in the moat, and a memorial there lists their names.
Read the complete La citadella d’Arras write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
La citadella d’Arras is where the day begins. Next is Cité du Pont.
2. Cité du Pont
Wingles sits on the northern edge of the coal basin, between Lens and La Bassée, where the mining towns give way to the canals and fields of the Weppes and the outskirts of Lille. The Cité du Pont is one of its miners' settlements, rows of brick houses built for the workers of the local pits, and it is part of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin World Heritage site. The name, the bridge settlement, hints at the importance of the waterways that crisscross this flat land.
Read the complete Cité du Pont write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cité du Pont comes up about 31 km into the recorded legs. Next is Chevalement du Vieux-Deux.
3. Chevalement du Vieux-Deux
Marles-les-Mines is a small town of about six thousand people west of Béthune, in the hilly western fringe of the coalfield, and the headframe known as the Vieux-Deux, the old Number Two, stands among its houses as a stubborn monument. The Compagnie des mines de Marles sank its shafts here in the nineteenth century, and the pit worked until the twentieth. The tall frame has been preserved, and together with the nearby terril and the cités around it, forms part of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Mining Basin, the World Heritage Site listed in 2012.
Read the complete Chevalement du Vieux-Deux write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 68 km into the recorded legs you reach Chevalement du Vieux-Deux. Next is Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi.
4. Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi
Flat country hides its stories well, and the strip of land around Vendin-le-Vieil, Pont-à-Vendin and Annay looks at first like any other piece of French Flanders suburbia: rows of brick houses, a canal, a few fields, a tangle of roads. Look again and the pattern reveals itself. The terraced streets are company housing, laid out by mining firms for their workers, and the low hills on the horizon are not hills at all but spoil heaps from the pits that once ran under this ground. The whole Nord-Pas de Calais coal basin was listed by UNESCO in 2012 as a living cultural landscape, and the area around Auchy-les-Mines and its neighbours is part of that long chain of pits, cités and terrils stretching across the north of France.
Read the complete Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi 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 d’Auchy-les-Mi, about halfway. Next is Cité Barrois.
5. Cité Barrois
Rows of red-brick cottages, each with its garden, set along curving streets with trees: the Cité Barrois in Pecquencourt looks almost English, and that is no accident. In the later years of the coal era, the mining companies of northern France built garden cities for their workers, influenced by ideas from across the Channel about healthy housing and green space. This one is part of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Mining Basin, listed by UNESCO in 2012 as an entire landscape of pits, slag heaps, workers' housing, schools, churches and railways spread over more than a hundred kilometres.
Read the complete Cité Barrois write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cité Barrois sits at 139 km, about halfway. Next is back through Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi.
6. back through Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi 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 d’Auchy-les-Mi comes up about 168 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Chevalement du Vieux-Deux.
7. back through Chevalement du Vieux-Deux
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Chevalement du Vieux-Deux write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 206 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Chevalement du Vieux-Deux. Next is back through Cité du Pont.
8. back through Cité du Pont
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité du Pont write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Cité du Pont, late in the day. Next is La citadella d’Arras.
9. La citadella d’Arras
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete La citadella d’Arras 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 275 km.
Leg by leg
La citadella d’Arras to Cité du Pont
La citadella d’Arras → Cité du Pont is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité du Pont to Chevalement du Vieux-Deux
Cité du Pont → Chevalement du Vieux-Deux is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chevalement du Vieux-Deux to Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi
Chevalement du Vieux-Deux → Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi to Cité Barrois
Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi → Cité Barrois is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité Barrois to back through Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi
Cité Barrois → back through Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi to back through Chevalement du Vieux-Deux
back through Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Auchy-les-Mi → back through Chevalement du Vieux-Deux is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Chevalement du Vieux-Deux to back through Cité du Pont
back through Chevalement du Vieux-Deux → back through Cité du Pont is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cité du Pont to La citadella d’Arras
back through Cité du Pont → La citadella d’Arras is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.