Why this ride
From Bully-les-Mines it runs 87 km to Bully-les-Mines; allow about 1 h 46 of riding. The stops in between: Cité du château des Dames, Terril 34 and back through Cité du château des Dames. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Monument du soldat Marche and Terril 34
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 87 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 46
- 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. Monument du soldat Marche
Bully-les-Mines lies just below the long ridge of Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, where the great French military cemetery overlooks the coalfield, and the juxtaposition says something about this part of France. The land around is a battlefield and a mining basin at the same time. In 1914 and 1915 the front line ran through here, and the villages were shattered. After the war they were rebuilt, and the new mining estates, the cités de la Victoire and des Arbres, took names that spoke of recovery.
Read the complete Monument du soldat Marche write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Monument du soldat Marche is where the day begins. Next is Cité du château des Dames.
2. Cité du château des Dames
South of Bruay-la-Buissière the land stops being a miners' plain and starts to feel like Artois, with small rivers, wooded valleys and the first rolling hills. It is the sort of cité that you come across by accident, a cluster of brick houses with gardens, set a little apart from the village, built for the Compagnie des mines de Béthune or one of its neighbours. UNESCO's 2012 listing included many of these, and each has a slightly different plan.
Read the complete Cité du château des Dames write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cité du château des Dames comes up about 19 km into the recorded legs. Next is Terril 34.
3. 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
about 44 km into the recorded legs you reach Terril 34. Next is back through Cité du château des Dames.
4. back through Cité du château des Dames
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité du château des Dames 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 château des Dames, late in the day. Next is Monument du soldat Marche.
5. Monument du soldat Marche
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Monument du soldat Marche write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Monument du soldat Marche. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Monument du soldat Marche to Cité du château des Dames
Monument du soldat Marche → Cité du château des Dames is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité du château des Dames to Terril 34
Cité du château des Dames → Terril 34 is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Terril 34 to back through Cité du château des Dames
Terril 34 → back through Cité du château des Dames is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cité du château des Dames to Monument du soldat Marche
back through Cité du château des Dames → Monument du soldat Marche is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.