Why this ride
A 248 km round trip from Auchel - roughly 3 h 26 in the saddle. The stops in between: Ensemble minier de la Belleforière, Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Bailleul and back through Ensemble minier de la Belleforière.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Terril 14 and Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Bailleul
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 248 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 26
- 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. Terril 14
Auchel lies on the western rim of the coalfield, where the black seams run out against the chalk hills of the Artois, and Terril 14 rises above the town and its neighbour Marles-les-Mines as a long, dark ridge softened by birch and grass. The heap is built of shale and waste rock brought up from the pits of the old company that worked this corner of the basin, and like many of the terrils, it has been left to nature since mining ended. Its slopes are now home to plants that love warm, dry ground, and the summit offers a view over the rooftops of the mining towns toward the green hills to the west. It belongs to the vast mining landscape listed by UNESCO in 2012.
Read the complete Terril 14 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Terril 14 is where the day begins. Next is Ensemble minier de la Belleforière.
2. Ensemble minier de la Belleforière
Roost-Warendin, Waziers and Râches sit just north of Douai, where the old Scarpe floodplain met the coal seams, and the Belleforière mining ensemble is one of the clusters that shows how a pit site was organised. Shafts, buildings, workers' housing and spoil heaps were laid out together, with the railway linking them all, and in a few places the ensemble survives well enough that you can read it on the ground. Part of the regional mining landscape listed by UNESCO in 2012, it is a good example of how coal companies planned whole villages around their extraction.
Read the complete Ensemble minier de la Belleforière 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 Belleforière comes up about 56 km into the recorded legs. Next is Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Bailleul.
3. Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Bailleul
Bailleul sits in French Flanders, so close to the Belgian border that you can hear Flemish place names on every signpost, and its town hall belfry, rising over the main square with a pointed spire and a carillon, looks every bit as Flemish as the towers of Ypres or Bruges. Like much of the town, it is a rebuilding: Bailleul was almost entirely destroyed in the spring of 1918, during the German offensive in Flanders, and was reconstructed in the 1920s in a neo-Flemish style of brick, stepped gables and decorative stonework. The belfry is one of the belfries of Belgium and France listed by UNESCO.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Bailleul write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 124 km into the recorded legs you reach Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Bailleul. Next is back through Ensemble minier de la Belleforière.
4. back through Ensemble minier de la Belleforière
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ensemble minier de la Belleforière 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 Belleforière, late in the day. Next is Terril 14.
5. Terril 14
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Terril 14 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Terril 14. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Terril 14 to Ensemble minier de la Belleforière
Terril 14 → Ensemble minier de la Belleforière is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ensemble minier de la Belleforière to Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Bailleul
Ensemble minier de la Belleforière → Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Bailleul is 68 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Bailleul to back through Ensemble minier de la Belleforière
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Bailleul → back through Ensemble minier de la Belleforière is 68 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ensemble minier de la Belleforière to Terril 14
back through Ensemble minier de la Belleforière → Terril 14 is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.