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: 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.
From Fresnes-sur-Escaut it runs 157 km to Fresnes-sur-Escaut; allow about 2 h 29 of riding. On the way it passes Fosse Delloye, Cités de la Solitude, Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e and back through Cités de la Solitude. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
At Condé-sur-l'Escaut, right on the Belgian border, the coal basin of northern France reaches its eastern end, and the old mining site of Chabaud-Latour shows how industry and nature have come to terms. A pit operated here for decades, and today what remains is a landscape of slag heaps, ponds formed by mining subsidence, woods and wetlands, part of the UNESCO site of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin.
Read the complete Paysage et ensemble miniers de Chabaud-Lat write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Paysage et ensemble miniers de Chabaud-Lat is where the day begins. Next is Fosse Delloye.
The name on the label belongs to the most famous pit in the whole northern coalfield. Fosse Delloye, at Lewarde a short ride west of here, closed in 1971 and became the Centre Historique Minier, France's largest mining museum, where former miners once guided visitors through reconstructed galleries and the old lamp rooms, showers and machine halls still stand as they were left. The point itself, though, sits beside Denain on the Escaut, and Denain deserves a story of its own.
Read the complete Fosse Delloye write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fosse Delloye comes up about 30 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cités de la Solitude.
On the edge of Waziers, near Douai, the cités de la Solitude are rows of brick houses built by a mining company for its workers, laid out in neat streets with small gardens. Such company towns, the cités minières, were the backbone of life in the coal basin of northern France, providing housing, schools, churches and shops for miners and their families, and they are among the most important elements of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Mining Basin, listed by UNESCO in 2012. The name Solitude seems almost ironic for a place built to house so many people close together.
Read the complete Cités de la Solitude write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 54 km into the recorded legs you reach Cités de la Solitude. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e, about halfway. Next is back through Cités de la Solitude.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cités de la Solitude write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cités de la Solitude sits at 101 km, about halfway. Next is back through Fosse Delloye.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fosse Delloye write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fosse Delloye comes up about 127 km into the recorded legs. Next is Paysage et ensemble miniers de Chabaud-Lat.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Paysage et ensemble miniers de Chabaud-Lat write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Paysage et ensemble miniers de Chabaud-Lat closes the day.
Paysage et ensemble miniers de Chabaud-Lat → Fosse Delloye is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fosse Delloye → Cités de la Solitude is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cités de la Solitude → Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e → back through Cités de la Solitude is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cités de la Solitude → back through Fosse Delloye is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fosse Delloye → Paysage et ensemble miniers de Chabaud-Lat is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.