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.
165 km from Billy-Montigny to Billy-Montigny, about 3 h 06 of riding. On the way it passes La citadella d’Arras, Paysage et ensemble miniers de Barlin, Terril 34 and back through Paysage et ensemble miniers de Barlin. The line favours views over speed.
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 La citadella d’Arras.
The people of Arras call their citadel la belle inutile, the beautiful useless one, and they say it with affection. Vauban built it in the late seventeenth century, after Louis XIV took Artois from Spain, as part of the chain of fortresses meant to lock France's northern border. Its star-shaped ramparts, bastions and moats are textbook Vauban, but the border moved north before the fortress ever saw a serious siege, hence the nickname. It is one of the twelve sites grouped as the Fortifications of Vauban on the UNESCO list since 2008. Its later history is darker: during the Second World War, the Germans executed resistance fighters in the moat, and a memorial there lists their names.
Read the complete La citadella d’Arras write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
La citadella d’Arras comes up about 23 km into the recorded legs. Next is Paysage et ensemble miniers de Barlin.
Barlin is where the coalfield starts to run into hills. To the west, the land rises gently into the Artois uplands, and the mining town sits at the transition, its slag heaps, workers' houses and pit buildings now part of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Mining Basin World Heritage site. It is a quieter corner than Lens or Douai, and the mix of industrial history and rolling countryside makes it a pleasant place to pause.
Read the complete Paysage et ensemble miniers de Barlin write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 55 km into the recorded legs you reach Paysage et ensemble miniers de Barlin. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Terril 34, about halfway. Next is back through Paysage et ensemble miniers de Barlin.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Paysage et ensemble miniers de Barlin write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Paysage et ensemble miniers de Barlin sits at 110 km, about halfway. Next is back through La citadella d’Arras.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete La citadella d’Arras write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through La citadella d’Arras comes up about 141 km into the recorded legs. 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.
Paysage et ensemble miniers de Drocourt closes the day.
Paysage et ensemble miniers de Drocourt → La citadella d’Arras is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
La citadella d’Arras → Paysage et ensemble miniers de Barlin is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Paysage et ensemble miniers de Barlin → Terril 34 is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Terril 34 → back through Paysage et ensemble miniers de Barlin is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Paysage et ensemble miniers de Barlin → back through La citadella d’Arras is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through La citadella d’Arras → Paysage et ensemble miniers de Drocourt is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.