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.
A 161 km round trip from Liévin - roughly 3 h 02 in the saddle. The stops in between: Hôtel de ville, Terril 32, Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin and back through Terril 32. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Liévin is a town of thirty-four thousand people that grew up around coal, and the Protestant temple on its streets is a small reminder of how mixed the mining population was. The pits drew workers from Belgium, Poland, Italy and North Africa as well as from the French countryside, and the mining companies built churches, schools, shops and entire districts for them. In a region that was overwhelmingly Catholic, a temple stood a little apart, and its quiet presence says something about the way the basin took in newcomers.
Read the complete Temple protestant write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Temple protestant is where the day begins. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hôtel de ville comes up about 23 km into the recorded legs. Next is Terril 32.
Out on the western fringe of the coal basin, where the mining country fades into the farmland of the Lys valley and the edge of the Artois hills, Terril 32 rises near Norrent-Fontes, Mametz and Thérouanne. This is the far end of the seam, a long way from the dense cités around Lens and Douai, and the countryside feels it: smaller villages, more fields, more trees, and pits that were fewer and further between. The heap stands almost like a lone hill above the cropland, a reminder that coal reached even here.
Read the complete Terril 32 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 44 km into the recorded legs you reach Terril 32. Next is Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin.
Hesdin is a small market town in the green valley of the Canche, in the Pas-de-Calais, and it owes its existence to an act of destruction. The original town, a few kilometres upstream, was razed in 1553 by the forces of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, and a new fortified town was built here the following year as a strongpoint on the frontier between France and the Habsburg Netherlands. The grid of streets and the large market square still follow that plan. On the square stands the town hall, a former palace of the Habsburg governors, with a beautifully carved Renaissance balcony from which proclamations were read, and its belfry is part of the UNESCO list of belfries in Belgium and France.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin, about halfway. Next is back through Terril 32.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Terril 32 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Terril 32 sits at 121 km, about halfway. Next is back through Hôtel de ville.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hôtel de ville write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hôtel de ville comes up about 138 km into the recorded legs. Next is Temple protestant.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Temple protestant write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Temple protestant closes the day.
Temple protestant → Hôtel de ville is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hôtel de ville → Terril 32 is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Terril 32 → Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Hesdin → back through Terril 32 is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Terril 32 → back through Hôtel de ville is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hôtel de ville → Temple protestant is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.