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.
282 km from Divion to Divion, about 4 h 25 of riding. On the way it passes Monument commémoratif de la Catastrophe de, Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage, Camus Haut and Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Armentières. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Terril n°10 is where the day begins. Next is Monument commémoratif de la Catastrophe de.
On the morning of 10 March 1906, an explosion tore through the galleries of the Courrières mining company, killing well over a thousand miners. It remains the worst mining disaster in European history. Most of the victims came from the towns of Méricourt, Sallaumines and Billy-Montigny, and many were buried in a mass grave nearby. Twenty days after the explosion, thirteen survivors emerged from the darkness, having found their way through the ruined galleries, and their story became famous across Europe. The memorials in and around Sallaumines honour the dead and the rescuers, including German miners from Westphalia who came to help.
Read the complete Monument commémoratif de la Catastrophe de write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Monument commémoratif de la Catastrophe de comes up about 33 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage.
Coal made this corner of northern France, and coal left it with a landscape unlike anywhere else in the country: slag heaps rising like black pyramids from the fields, pithead frames standing over old shafts and long rows of brick miners' houses lining the streets of every town. The Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin was listed by UNESCO in 2012, and the Cités du Champ Fleuri et du Garage, near Masny and Lewarde, are among its typical housing estates, built by mining companies to house workers and their families close to the pits.
Read the complete Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 66 km into the recorded legs you reach Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage. Next is Camus Haut.
Camus Haut lies on the eastern edge of the mining basin, near Annay, Pont-à-Vendin and Harnes, where the canalised Deûle carries barges north towards Lille. The label refers to one of the many mining sites and cités of the area, and while the exact spot is hard to identify from a distance, the landscape tells you what kind of place it is: brick housing estates, old pit heads, spoil heaps going green, and the wide, flat horizon of the Gohelle.
Read the complete Camus Haut write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Camus Haut, about halfway. Next is Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Armentières.
Armentières is a textile town on the river Lys, right on the Belgian border, a quarter of an hour west of Lille. Its name is familiar to many English speakers from the bawdy marching song of the First World War, Mademoiselle from Armentières, which British soldiers sang on their way to the front lines nearby. The town paid a terrible price for being so close to that front: it was shelled, occupied and largely destroyed by 1918. The town hall and its belfry were rebuilt in the 1920s and 1930s in a confident Flemish style, and the tower now belongs to the UNESCO group of belfries of Belgium and France.
Read the complete Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Armentières write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Armentières sits at 136 km, about halfway. Next is back through Camus Haut.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Camus Haut write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Camus Haut comes up about 183 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 215 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage. Next is back through Monument commémoratif de la Catastrophe de.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Monument commémoratif de la Catastrophe de write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Monument commémoratif de la Catastrophe de, late in the day. Next is Terril n°10.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Terril n°10 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 282 km.
Terril n°10 → Monument commémoratif de la Catastrophe de is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Monument commémoratif de la Catastrophe de → Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage → Camus Haut is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Camus Haut → Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Armentières is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville d’Armentières → back through Camus Haut is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Camus Haut → back through Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cités du Champ fleuri et du Garage → back through Monument commémoratif de la Catastrophe de is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Monument commémoratif de la Catastrophe de → Terril n°10 is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.