Why this ride
A 300 km round trip from Vieux-Condé - roughly 5 h 49 in the saddle. On the way it passes Terrils 143 et 143 a, Cité n°2 62 Pas-de-Calais, Terril 14 and Beffroi de porte de Lucheux. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin and Beffroi de porte de Lucheux
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 300 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 5 h 49
- 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. Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin
Black hills on a flat land. That is the image most people keep of the Nord-Pas de Calais coal basin, a band of former mining country stretching about 120 kilometres from the Belgian border westward towards Béthune, where for nearly three centuries coal was dug from deep underground. The slag heaps, the terrils, rise like pyramids above the towns, and the mining villages, the cités, line the streets in rows of brick houses. In 2012 the basin was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, recognised as a living cultural landscape, with over three hundred elements protected.
Read the complete Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin is where the day begins. Next is Terrils 143 et 143 a.
2. Terrils 143 et 143 a
East of Douai, the Scarpe river winds through a green valley of marshes, woods and meadows, and rising out of it, near Pecquencourt and Lallaing, are the heaps numbered 143 and 143a, spoil from the mines that once operated here. Today they are part of the Scarpe-Escaut regional nature park and the World Heritage listing of the mining basin, and they are covered with trees and paths, home to birds and plants.
Read the complete Terrils 143 et 143 a write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Terrils 143 et 143 a comes up about 33 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cité n°2 62 Pas-de-Calais.
3. Cité n°2 62 Pas-de-Calais
The mining basin of Nord-Pas-de-Calais is flat country made hilly by hand. Around Lens, the heaps of slag left by two centuries of coal digging rise like black pyramids above the fields, and the red-brick miners' houses stand in long, tidy terraces, row after row, called corons. This particular stop lies in the town of Lens, in a cité, the name for a company-built miners' estate, and the numbers in the label come from the way the mining companies numbered their pits and estates.
Read the complete Cité n°2 62 Pas-de-Calais 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 Cité n°2 62 Pas-de-Calais. Next is Terril 14.
4. Terril 14
Auchel lies on the western rim of the coalfield, where the black seams run out against the chalk hills of the Artois, and Terril 14 rises above the town and its neighbour Marles-les-Mines as a long, dark ridge softened by birch and grass. The heap is built of shale and waste rock brought up from the pits of the old company that worked this corner of the basin, and like many of the terrils, it has been left to nature since mining ended. Its slopes are now home to plants that love warm, dry ground, and the summit offers a view over the rooftops of the mining towns toward the green hills to the west. It belongs to the vast mining landscape listed by UNESCO in 2012.
Read the complete Terril 14 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Terril 14, about halfway. Next is Beffroi de porte de Lucheux.
5. Beffroi de porte de Lucheux
Lucheux is a small village in a wooded valley in the north of the Somme, close to the border with the Pas-de-Calais, and its belfry is something of an oddity. Rather than rising above a town hall or a market square, as in the larger towns of Flanders and Picardy, it is built into a fortified gateway, a stout stone tower straddling the road through the village. It is part of the group of belfries of Belgium and France listed by UNESCO, a symbol of the civic freedoms that towns and villages won from their feudal lords in the Middle Ages. Above the village stand the ruins of a castle that belonged to the Counts of Saint-Pol, with a great hall and towers in a romantic state of decay.
Read the complete Beffroi de porte de Lucheux write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Beffroi de porte de Lucheux sits at 152 km, about halfway. Next is back through Terril 14.
6. back through Terril 14
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Terril 14 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Terril 14 comes up about 196 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Cité n°2 62 Pas-de-Calais.
7. back through Cité n°2 62 Pas-de-Calais
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité n°2 62 Pas-de-Calais write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 230 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Cité n°2 62 Pas-de-Calais. Next is back through Terrils 143 et 143 a.
8. back through Terrils 143 et 143 a
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Terrils 143 et 143 a write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Terrils 143 et 143 a, late in the day. Next is Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin.
9. Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin 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 300 km.
Leg by leg
Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin to Terrils 143 et 143 a
Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin → Terrils 143 et 143 a is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Terrils 143 et 143 a to Cité n°2 62 Pas-de-Calais
Terrils 143 et 143 a → Cité n°2 62 Pas-de-Calais is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité n°2 62 Pas-de-Calais to Terril 14
Cité n°2 62 Pas-de-Calais → Terril 14 is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Terril 14 to Beffroi de porte de Lucheux
Terril 14 → Beffroi de porte de Lucheux is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de porte de Lucheux to back through Terril 14
Beffroi de porte de Lucheux → back through Terril 14 is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Terril 14 to back through Cité n°2 62 Pas-de-Calais
back through Terril 14 → back through Cité n°2 62 Pas-de-Calais is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cité n°2 62 Pas-de-Calais to back through Terrils 143 et 143 a
back through Cité n°2 62 Pas-de-Calais → back through Terrils 143 et 143 a is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Terrils 143 et 143 a to Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin
back through Terrils 143 et 143 a → Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.