Why this ride
A 148 km round trip from Aire-sur-la-Lys - roughly 2 h 46 in the saddle. On the way it passes Terril n°10, Cité d’Auchy, Cité Crombez and back through Cité d’Auchy. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Terril 244 and Cité Crombez
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 148 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 46
- 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 244
Way out at the western tip of the coalfield, near the villages of Mametz and Norrent-Fontes, Terril 244 marks the place where coal mining reached its limit. Beyond it, the land belongs to farmers, and the next towns, Aire-sur-la-Lys and Saint-Omer, have more to do with canals, marshes and markets than with mines. The heap stands as a solitary landmark in the fields, smaller than the giants further east, and its green-covered slopes blend into the landscape. It is one of the outlying components of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin listed by UNESCO, a reminder that the coalfield stretched for over a hundred kilometres from the Belgian border to here.
Read the complete Terril 244 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Terril 244 is where the day begins. Next is Terril n°10.
2. Terril n°10
In the western part of the Nord-Pas de Calais mining basin, around Bruay-la-Buissière, Divion and Marles-les-Mines, the horizon is shaped by terrils, the spoil heaps left by more than two centuries of coal mining. Terril number 10 is one of them, a dark cone of shale and waste rock that has slowly turned green as birch, broom and grasses have colonised it. The basin, with its pits, cités, railway lines and spoil heaps, was listed by UNESCO in 2012 as an evolving cultural landscape, recognising both the industrial history and the lives of the hundreds of thousands of miners who worked here.
Read the complete Terril n°10 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Terril n°10 comes up about 25 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cité d’Auchy.
3. Cité d’Auchy
Rows of identical brick houses with small gardens, laid out in straight lines or gentle curves, each with its own vegetable plot and outhouse: the cité at Auchy-les-Mines is a textbook example of the miners' housing built by mining companies in northern France. The companies provided homes, schools, churches and shops, both to attract workers and to control them, and the cités, with their distinctive layouts and architecture, are a central part of the World Heritage listing of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin.
Read the complete Cité d’Auchy write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 47 km into the recorded legs you reach Cité d’Auchy. Next is Cité Crombez.
4. Cité Crombez
Cité Crombez is a miners' settlement at Noyelles-Godault, on the eastern edge of Hénin-Beaumont, in the heart of the old coal basin between Lens and Douai. Built by the mining company to house its workers, it has the classic layout of brick houses, gardens and straight streets, and it is part of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin World Heritage site. Today it is a quiet residential area, surrounded by shopping centres, motorways and the remains of heavy industry.
Read the complete Cité Crombez write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cité Crombez, about halfway. Next is back through Cité d’Auchy.
5. back through Cité d’Auchy
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité d’Auchy write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Cité d’Auchy sits at 102 km, about halfway. Next is back through Terril n°10.
6. back through Terril n°10
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Terril n°10 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Terril n°10 comes up about 125 km into the recorded legs. Next is Terril 244.
7. Terril 244
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Terril 244 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Terril 244 closes the day.
Leg by leg
Terril 244 to Terril n°10
Terril 244 → Terril n°10 is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Terril n°10 to Cité d’Auchy
Terril n°10 → Cité d’Auchy is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité d’Auchy to Cité Crombez
Cité d’Auchy → Cité Crombez is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité Crombez to back through Cité d’Auchy
Cité Crombez → back through Cité d’Auchy is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cité d’Auchy to back through Terril n°10
back through Cité d’Auchy → back through Terril n°10 is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Terril n°10 to Terril 244
back through Terril n°10 → Terril 244 is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.