Why this ride
307 km from Vieux-Condé to Vieux-Condé, about 5 h 06 of riding. It goes by way of Cités Sainte-Marie, Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e, Hôtel de ville and Beffroi de porte de Lucheux. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Pompe à feu de la fosse du Sarteau and Beffroi de porte de Lucheux
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 307 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 5 h 06
- 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. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Pompe à feu de la fosse du Sarteau is where the day begins. Next is Cités Sainte-Marie.
2. Cités Sainte-Marie
Pecquencourt sits on the edge of the Scarpe valley east of Douai, where the coal basin meets a land of marshes, ponds and forests, and the Cités Sainte-Marie are rows of miners' houses built for the workers of the nearby Sainte-Marie pit. Like many mining settlements, they follow a regular pattern, with brick houses in pairs or rows, gardens at the back and wide streets, designed by the company to house its workforce and keep them close to the pit. They are part of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin World Heritage site.
Read the complete Cités Sainte-Marie write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cités Sainte-Marie comes up about 50 km into the recorded legs. Next is Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e.
3. 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
about 81 km into the recorded legs you reach Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e. Next is Hôtel de ville.
4. Hôtel de ville
Bruay-la-Buissière is a mining town that grew from almost nothing into a busy industrial centre in less than a century, and its town hall, an imposing building in the heart of town, is a statement of that civic pride. The label points to the Hôtel de ville, one of the many urban and public buildings of the mining era that are part of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin World Heritage site. It sits on the western end of the coalfield, where the plain begins to rise towards the chalk hills of Artois.
Read the complete Hôtel de ville write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Hôtel de ville, about halfway. Next is Beffroi de porte de Lucheux.
5. Beffroi de porte de Lucheux
Lucheux is a small village in a wooded valley in the north of the Somme, close to the border with the Pas-de-Calais, and its belfry is something of an oddity. Rather than rising above a town hall or a market square, as in the larger towns of Flanders and Picardy, it is built into a fortified gateway, a stout stone tower straddling the road through the village. It is part of the group of belfries of Belgium and France listed by UNESCO, a symbol of the civic freedoms that towns and villages won from their feudal lords in the Middle Ages. Above the village stand the ruins of a castle that belonged to the Counts of Saint-Pol, with a great hall and towers in a romantic state of decay.
Read the complete Beffroi de porte de Lucheux write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Beffroi de porte de Lucheux sits at 147 km, about halfway. Next is back through Hôtel de ville.
6. back through Hôtel de ville
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hôtel de ville write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Hôtel de ville comes up about 193 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e.
7. back through 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
about 225 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e. Next is back through Cités Sainte-Marie.
8. back through Cités Sainte-Marie
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cités Sainte-Marie write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Cités Sainte-Marie, late in the day. Next is Pompe à feu de la fosse du Sarteau.
9. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 307 km.
Leg by leg
Pompe à feu de la fosse du Sarteau to Cités Sainte-Marie
Pompe à feu de la fosse du Sarteau → Cités Sainte-Marie is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cités Sainte-Marie to Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e
Cités Sainte-Marie → Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e to Hôtel de ville
Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e → Hôtel de ville is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hôtel de ville to Beffroi de porte de Lucheux
Hôtel de ville → Beffroi de porte de Lucheux is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de porte de Lucheux to back through Hôtel de ville
Beffroi de porte de Lucheux → back through Hôtel de ville is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hôtel de ville to back through Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e
back through Hôtel de ville → back through Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e to back through Cités Sainte-Marie
back through Paysage et ensemble miniers d’Estevelles e → back through Cités Sainte-Marie is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cités Sainte-Marie to Pompe à feu de la fosse du Sarteau
back through Cités Sainte-Marie → Pompe à feu de la fosse du Sarteau is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.