CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 251 km round trip from Bruay-la-Buissière - roughly 4 h 20 in the saddle. On the way it passes Fosse n°2 de Flines, Het Belfort of Halletoren and back through Fosse n°2 de Flines. It crosses from France into Belgium - carry ID and check the toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
In Bruay-la-Buissière, the streets of one mining estate carry the names of composers, which is where the Cités des Musiciens get their name. The mining company laid out housing in neat rows of brick, with gardens, pavements and modest decorative touches, and gave the lanes names such as Mozart, Berlioz and Bizet, a gesture that mixes paternalism with a certain poetry. Whether the miners cared much about the choice is another question, but the estates have a distinctive atmosphere, and they are listed by UNESCO as part of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin.
Read the complete Les cités des Musiciens write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Les cités des Musiciens is where the day begins. Next is Fosse n°2 de Flines.
The headframe is the giveaway. In the low, watery country between Lallaing, Anhiers and Flines-lez-Raches, the steel or concrete winding towers of old coal pits still stand as markers, and Fosse n°2 de Flines is one of the sites that recall the industry that shaped this corner of the Douai area. A fosse in the local vocabulary is a pit with its shafts, buildings and spoil heap, and around each one a small world grew: rows of brick housing, a church, a school, and the company offices that ran the lives of everyone underground and above it.
Read the complete Fosse n°2 de Flines write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fosse n°2 de Flines comes up about 61 km into the recorded legs. Next is Het Belfort of Halletoren.
On the Grote Markt of Kortrijk a tower stands alone in the middle of the square, as if the building it belonged to had wandered off. In a sense it did. The Belfort, or Halletoren, was once part of the cloth hall, the trading heart of a medieval textile town, and when the hall disappeared the tower stayed. It is one of the belfries of Belgium and France on the UNESCO list, and it has a pair of local celebrities at the top: two gilded figures, Manten and Kalle, who strike the hours on the bell. Kortrijk people are fond of them, and you will see their likenesses on all sorts of souvenirs.
Read the complete Het Belfort of Halletoren write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 126 km into the recorded legs you reach Het Belfort of Halletoren. Next is back through Fosse n°2 de Flines.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fosse n°2 de Flines write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fosse n°2 de Flines, late in the day. Next is Les cités des Musiciens.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Les cités des Musiciens write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Les cités des Musiciens. That is the ride.
Les cités des Musiciens → Fosse n°2 de Flines is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fosse n°2 de Flines → Het Belfort of Halletoren is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Het Belfort of Halletoren → back through Fosse n°2 de Flines is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fosse n°2 de Flines → Les cités des Musiciens is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.