Why this ride
From Harnes it runs 145 km to Harnes; allow about 2 h 55 of riding. The stops in between: Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur, Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs, Monument du soldat Marche and Cité du château des Dames.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e and Cité du château des Dames
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 145 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 55
- 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. Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e
Estevelles is a small town where the mining basin meets the waterways of the Deûle, between Pont-à-Vendin and Carvin. The label points to one of the mining ensembles of the area, part of the UNESCO-listed basin: a pit, a cité, perhaps a spoil heap, all together telling the story of how coal shaped every aspect of local life. The mining companies built not only houses but churches, schools, health centres and gardens, controlling their workers' lives from cradle to grave. The cités around here, with their neat rows of brick houses and small vegetable gardens, still house many descendants of miners.
Read the complete Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e 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’Estevelles e is where the day begins. Next is Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur.
2. Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur
Mining companies built for rank as well as for need. The ordinary miners got brick cottages in terraces, but the engineers and directors got something grander, detached houses with larger gardens and, for the top man, a house that was called a château and looked like one. Château Mercier at Mazingarbe belongs to that tradition, and the ride titles pair it with the engineers' houses. A walk through the old cité shows you the whole hierarchy of a company town in a few hundred metres, from the pit and the cottages to the engineers' row and the director's lawn. UNESCO's 2012 listing of the mining basin covers this social geography as much as the machinery.
Read the complete Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur comes up about 16 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs.
3. Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs
The coal companies were not short of optimism when they named their housing. In Bruay-la-Buissière, two neighbouring cités were called the New World and the Flowers, and their brick houses with front gardens, laid out along tidy streets, were meant to sell a better life to the families who came from across France, Poland, Italy and North Africa to work the pits. They belong to the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin World Heritage Site, and they remain ordinary homes, so look respectfully.
Read the complete Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 34 km into the recorded legs you reach Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs. Next is Monument du soldat Marche.
4. 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, about halfway. Next is Cité du château des Dames.
5. 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 sits at 66 km, about halfway. Next is back through Monument du soldat Marche.
6. back through 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 through Monument du soldat Marche comes up about 90 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs.
7. back through Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 108 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs. Next is back through Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur.
8. back through Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur, late in the day. Next is Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e.
9. Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e 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 145 km.
Leg by leg
Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e to Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur
Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e → Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur to Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs
Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur → Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs to Monument du soldat Marche
Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs → Monument du soldat Marche is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
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 back through Monument du soldat Marche
Cité du château des Dames → back through Monument du soldat Marche is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Monument du soldat Marche to back through Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs
back through Monument du soldat Marche → back through Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs to back through Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur
back through Cités du Nouveau Monde et des Fleurs → back through Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur to Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e
back through Château Mercier et maisons d’ingénieur → Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.