Why this ride
An 83 km round trip from Grenay - roughly 1 h 34 in the saddle. The stops in between: Terrils Jumeaux 28, Terril 34 and back through Terrils Jumeaux 28. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Paysage et ensemble miniers de Grenay-Mazi and Terril 34
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 83 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 34
- 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 de Grenay-Mazi
Take any road across the Artois plain around Grenay and you will see the shape of the mining basin on the skyline: conical slag heaps, called terrils, rising out of the farmland and cités, and tall brick pit-head buildings that once housed the winding gear. This area lies between Lens and Béthune, in a district called the Gohelle, and it was mined intensively from the nineteenth century until the last pit closed in 1990. The Grenay and Mazingarbe sites are part of the UNESCO-listed mining basin, which recognises both the buildings and the landscape, and the way company housing, railways and spoil heaps shaped one another.
Read the complete Paysage et ensemble miniers de Grenay-Mazi 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 de Grenay-Mazi is where the day begins. Next is Terrils Jumeaux 28.
2. Terrils Jumeaux 28
Two near-perfect black cones rise from the farmland between Ruitz, Maisnil-lès-Ruitz and Haillicourt, and once you have spotted them you will keep seeing them for miles. These twin terrils, the spoil heaps of former coal pits, are among the tallest in the Nord-Pas de Calais basin and have become something of a regional emblem. They look volcanic, which in a way they are: shale and waste rock tipped there for decades by the mining companies, slowly settling into steep, smooth pyramids that turn purple-grey in rain and almost silver in bright sun.
Read the complete Terrils Jumeaux 28 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Terrils Jumeaux 28 comes up about 20 km into the recorded legs. Next is Terril 34.
3. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 41 km into the recorded legs you reach Terril 34. Next is back through Terrils Jumeaux 28.
4. back through Terrils Jumeaux 28
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Terrils Jumeaux 28 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Terrils Jumeaux 28, late in the day. Next is Paysage et ensemble miniers de Grenay-Mazi.
5. Paysage et ensemble miniers de Grenay-Mazi
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Paysage et ensemble miniers de Grenay-Mazi write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Paysage et ensemble miniers de Grenay-Mazi. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Paysage et ensemble miniers de Grenay-Mazi to Terrils Jumeaux 28
Paysage et ensemble miniers de Grenay-Mazi → Terrils Jumeaux 28 is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Terrils Jumeaux 28 to Terril 34
Terrils Jumeaux 28 → Terril 34 is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Terril 34 to back through Terrils Jumeaux 28
Terril 34 → back through Terrils Jumeaux 28 is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Terrils Jumeaux 28 to Paysage et ensemble miniers de Grenay-Mazi
back through Terrils Jumeaux 28 → Paysage et ensemble miniers de Grenay-Mazi is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.