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.
From Norrent-Fontes it runs 273 km to Norrent-Fontes; allow about 4 h 14 of riding. On the way it passes Cité n°10, Cités de la Justice et du Moulin, Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu and Château de l’Hermitage. It crosses from France into Belgium - carry ID and check the toll rules. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
A terril is a slag heap, a mountain of waste rock dumped beside a coal mine, and in the flat land of northern France these man-made hills are the closest thing to relief for miles around. Terril 34 is one of hundreds that dot the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Mining Basin, a UNESCO site since 2012, which recognises not only the heaps but also the pithead frames, miners' housing estates, schools, churches and railway lines that made up the landscape of coal mining in the region for nearly three centuries. This one sits near Norrent-Fontes and Lillers, at the western end of the basin, where it meets the chalk hills of Artois.
Read the complete Terril 34 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Terril 34 is where the day begins. Next is Cité n°10.
Sains-en-Gohelle is a former coal town in the heart of the Nord-Pas de Calais mining basin, and Cité n°10 is one of its old mining estates, rows of brick houses built for miners and their families around a pithead. The basin, which stretches about 120 kilometres from the Belgian border towards the west, was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012, and the cités, the slag heaps and the headframes are its most visible remains.
Read the complete Cité n°10 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cité n°10 comes up about 36 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 70 km into the recorded legs you reach Cités de la Justice et du Moulin. Next is Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu.
Lourches is a small mining town in the Nord department, on the banks of the Escaut river, between Denain and Valenciennes, in the heart of the old coal mining basin that stretched across northern France. The memorial named after Charles Mathieu is one of the elements listed as part of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Mining Basin UNESCO site, alongside pitheads, slag heaps, miners' housing and the buildings of the mining companies.
Read the complete Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu, about halfway. Next is Château de l’Hermitage.
On the Franco-Belgian border, in a forest that has never much cared which country it is in, a pale classical château stands in a clearing. The Château de l'Hermitage was built in the eighteenth century for the dukes of Croÿ, one of the great aristocratic families of the region, as a refined country retreat, and it sits just inside France, near Condé-sur-l'Escaut, at the edge of the forest of Bon-Secours. The family's title went back centuries, and their estates spread across both sides of what is now the border.
Read the complete Château de l’Hermitage write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Château de l’Hermitage sits at 138 km, about halfway. Next is back through Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu comes up about 174 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Cités de la Justice et du Moulin.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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.
about 208 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Cités de la Justice et du Moulin. Next is back through Cité n°10.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité n°10 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cité n°10, late in the day. Next is Terril 34.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Terril 34 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 273 km.
Terril 34 → Cité n°10 is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité n°10 → Cités de la Justice et du Moulin is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cités de la Justice et du Moulin → Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu → Château de l’Hermitage is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Château de l’Hermitage → back through Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Monument commémoratif Charles Mathieu → back through Cités de la Justice et du Moulin is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cités de la Justice et du Moulin → back through Cité n°10 is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cité n°10 → Terril 34 is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.