Why this ride
From Vieux-Condé it runs 87 km to Vieux-Condé; allow about 1 h 27 of riding. It goes by way of Ensemble minier de La Sentinelle, Cités de Beaurepaire and back through Ensemble minier de La Sentinelle. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Pompe à feu de la fosse du Sarteau and Cités de Beaurepaire
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 87 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 27
- 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 Ensemble minier de La Sentinelle.
2. Ensemble minier de La Sentinelle
France's coalfield is a long, narrow band that runs from Béthune in the west to the Belgian border in the east, and at its eastern end, around Valenciennes, the ground still carries traces of the first mines. The Anzin company, which controlled much of this area in the nineteenth century, dug shafts, built pumping stations and laid out workers' housing, and in 1884 Émile Zola came to the district to research Germinal, his great novel of a miners' strike. The ensemble at La Sentinelle includes the old pumping engine house of the Sarteau pit, a survivor from that early industrial age, and the nearby Cités de Beaurepaire, rows of company housing for miners and their families. The whole mining basin was listed by UNESCO in 2012.
Read the complete Ensemble minier de La Sentinelle write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Ensemble minier de La Sentinelle comes up about 19 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cités de Beaurepaire.
3. Cités de Beaurepaire
Somain exists because of the railway. Several lines meet here, and the town grew up around the station, which still has the busy feel of a junction. The Cités de Beaurepaire were built by the Aniche mining company, one of the great concerns of the northern coalfield, and they show how a company could shape a landscape: neat brick rows, small squares, a few shared buildings, and gardens laid out to a plan. A local will tell you who lived in which house and which families still do; an outsider notices the symmetry first, and then the small signs of individuality, a painted door, a trellis, a satellite dish pointing the wrong way.
Read the complete Cités de Beaurepaire write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 43 km into the recorded legs you reach Cités de Beaurepaire. Next is back through Ensemble minier de La Sentinelle.
4. back through Ensemble minier de La Sentinelle
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ensemble minier de La Sentinelle write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Ensemble minier de La Sentinelle, late in the day. Next is Pompe à feu de la fosse du Sarteau.
5. 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
Back at Pompe à feu de la fosse du Sarteau. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Pompe à feu de la fosse du Sarteau to Ensemble minier de La Sentinelle
Pompe à feu de la fosse du Sarteau → Ensemble minier de La Sentinelle is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ensemble minier de La Sentinelle to Cités de Beaurepaire
Ensemble minier de La Sentinelle → Cités de Beaurepaire is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cités de Beaurepaire to back through Ensemble minier de La Sentinelle
Cités de Beaurepaire → back through Ensemble minier de La Sentinelle is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ensemble minier de La Sentinelle to Pompe à feu de la fosse du Sarteau
back through Ensemble minier de La Sentinelle → Pompe à feu de la fosse du Sarteau is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.