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.
From Billy-Montigny it runs 247 km to Billy-Montigny; allow about 4 h 16 of riding. The stops in between: Pompe à feu de la fosse du Sarteau, Béguinage de Kortrijk and back through Pompe à feu de la fosse du Sarteau. It crosses from France into Belgium - carry ID and check the toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Drocourt lies in the middle of the basin, between Lens and Douai, and its landscape tells the story of coal on a human scale. The pit-head frames and brick buildings of the old shafts, the spoil heaps sprouting trees and the long rows of miners' houses lie almost within sight of one another, and together they are listed as part of the UNESCO Mining Basin. Nearby is the old pumping house at the Sarteau shaft, a reminder that water was always the miners' enemy, and that huge machines had to keep the workings dry day and night.
Read the complete Paysage et ensemble miniers de Drocourt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Paysage et ensemble miniers de Drocourt is where the day begins. Next is Pompe à feu de la fosse du Sarteau.
Coal was first found in France not far from here. In 1720, prospectors working near Fresnes-sur-Escaut struck a seam, and within a few years the Anzin company was sinking shafts all along the valley of the Escaut, the river the Dutch and Belgians call the Scheldt. The Pompe à feu, the fire pump, is the old steam engine house at the Sarteau pit in Vieux-Condé, and its name comes from the early engines, which burned coal to make steam and pumped water out of the workings. Inside the red brick building the beam engine would have towered over the floor with its great rocking arm. The whole mining basin of Nord-Pas-de-Calais was listed by UNESCO in 2012 as an evolving cultural landscape, and the pit at Sarteau is one of the pieces of it.
Read the complete Pompe à feu de la fosse du Sarteau write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pompe à feu de la fosse du Sarteau comes up about 61 km into the recorded legs. Next is Béguinage de Kortrijk.
Step through a gate off a busy street in the centre of Kortrijk and the noise falls away. The béguinage is a tiny enclosed village of whitewashed houses, cobbled lanes and a small church, founded in the thirteenth century by Countess Joan of Constantinople for the beguines, lay women who lived a religious life without taking full vows. It is one of the Flemish béguinages that UNESCO listed together in 1998, and although it is small, it has a rare atmosphere of calm. A statue of the countess stands at the entrance.
Read the complete Béguinage de Kortrijk write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 124 km into the recorded legs you reach Béguinage de Kortrijk. Next is back through Pompe à feu de la fosse du Sarteau.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pompe à feu de la fosse du Sarteau write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Pompe à feu de la fosse du Sarteau, late in the day. Next is Paysage et ensemble miniers de Drocourt.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Paysage et ensemble miniers de Drocourt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Paysage et ensemble miniers de Drocourt. That is the ride.
Paysage et ensemble miniers de Drocourt → Pompe à feu de la fosse du Sarteau is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pompe à feu de la fosse du Sarteau → Béguinage de Kortrijk is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Béguinage de Kortrijk → back through Pompe à feu de la fosse du Sarteau is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Pompe à feu de la fosse du Sarteau → Paysage et ensemble miniers de Drocourt is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.