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 136 km round trip from Aire-sur-la-Lys - roughly 2 h 21 in the saddle. On the way it passes Les cités des Musiciens, Chevalement du n°1 bis de Liévin, Cités de la Justice et du Moulin and back through Chevalement du n°1 bis de Liévin.
A terril is a coal slag heap, and in the old Artois coalfield they punctuate the horizon like unfinished pyramids. This one, numbered 31 in the local inventory of the mining basin, lies on the southern fringe of the field, near Norrent-Fontes and Mametz, where the plain of the Lys starts to tilt against the low hills of Artois. Heaps like this were built up over decades from the waste rock hauled out of the pits, and many are conical, a few are flat-topped and some stretch in long ridges. Left alone, they have turned into oddities of nature, with warm black soil that suits unusual plants, birch scrub, and in summer a surprising number of butterflies.
Read the complete Terril 31 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Terril 31 is where the day begins. Next is Les cités des Musiciens.
In Bruay-la-Buissière, the streets of one mining estate carry the names of composers, which is where the Cités des Musiciens get their name. The mining company laid out housing in neat rows of brick, with gardens, pavements and modest decorative touches, and gave the lanes names such as Mozart, Berlioz and Bizet, a gesture that mixes paternalism with a certain poetry. Whether the miners cared much about the choice is another question, but the estates have a distinctive atmosphere, and they are listed by UNESCO as part of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin.
Read the complete Les cités des Musiciens write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Les cités des Musiciens comes up about 22 km into the recorded legs. Next is Chevalement du n°1 bis de Liévin.
Number 1 bis at Liévin was one of the shafts of the old Compagnie des mines de Liévin, and its headframe still stands, a lean tower against a sky that is often low and grey. It is protected as part of the Mining Basin World Heritage Site, listed in 2012, together with the terrils, the cités and a hundred or so other elements across the old coalfield. What strikes you is how ordinary it looks, a plain frame in an urban setting, and yet it stands for generations of men who went down in cages and came back up with faces black with coal.
Read the complete Chevalement du n°1 bis de Liévin write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 45 km into the recorded legs you reach Chevalement du n°1 bis de Liévin. Next is Cités de la Justice et du Moulin.
For almost three centuries, coal shaped the land between Valenciennes and Béthune in northern France, creating a landscape of pits, slag heaps, railway lines and miners' housing estates. The Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2012, and the Cités de la Justice et du Moulin in Auby are part of it: rows of brick houses built by the mining companies to house their workers, with gardens, churches, schools and shops, all organised around the pit. The cités are still inhabited, so treat them as neighbourhoods rather than museums.
Read the complete Cités de la Justice et du Moulin write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cités de la Justice et du Moulin, about halfway. Next is back through Chevalement du n°1 bis de Liévin.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Chevalement du n°1 bis de Liévin write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Chevalement du n°1 bis de Liévin sits at 99 km, about halfway. Next is back through Les cités des Musiciens.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Les cités des Musiciens write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Les cités des Musiciens comes up about 113 km into the recorded legs. Next is Terril 31.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Terril 31 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Terril 31 closes the day.
Terril 31 → Les cités des Musiciens is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Les cités des Musiciens → Chevalement du n°1 bis de Liévin is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chevalement du n°1 bis de Liévin → Cités de la Justice et du Moulin is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cités de la Justice et du Moulin → back through Chevalement du n°1 bis de Liévin is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Chevalement du n°1 bis de Liévin → back through Les cités des Musiciens is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Les cités des Musiciens → Terril 31 is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.