Why this ride
264 km from Denain to Denain, about 4 h 06 of riding. It goes by way of Cités de la Justice et du Moulin, Cité n°10, Terril 34 and Cité n°2. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Terril Renard and Cité n°2
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 264 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 06
- 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 Renard
Climb the Renard slag heap near Denain and you are standing on two centuries of work. Terrils are the waste rock hauled out of a mine in wagons and tipped, one load after another, until the pile became a hill. This one, the Fox, lies barely a kilometre and a half from the middle of Denain, a town of twenty-one thousand people that grew fat on coal and steel. It is named after the Renard pit, and it was down the Renard pit in 1884 that Émile Zola was lowered while he researched Germinal, notebook in hand, listening to the men who worked the seam.
Read the complete Terril Renard write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Terril Renard is where the day begins. Next is Cités de la Justice et du Moulin.
2. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cités de la Justice et du Moulin comes up about 31 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cité n°10.
3. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 62 km into the recorded legs you reach Cité n°10. Next is Terril 34.
4. Terril 34
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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Terril 34, about halfway. Next is Cité n°2.
5. Cité n°2
Mazingarbe is a small town on the northern edge of the mining basin, with the terraced rows of a miners' cité running down streets of red brick, and nearly twelve thousand people live in neighbouring Bully-les-Mines. The Cité Foch and the Cité Bellevue are two of the estates that mark this stretch of the basin on the map. The cité, built by the coal company for its workers, usually came with a school, a church, a company shop and a community hall, so that the pit shaped a whole life.
Read the complete Cité n°2 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cité n°2 sits at 141 km, about halfway. Next is back through Terril 34.
6. back through Terril 34
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Terril 34 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Terril 34 comes up about 166 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Cité n°10.
7. back through Cité n°10
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité n°10 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 202 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Cité n°10. Next is back through Cités de la Justice et du Moulin.
8. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Cités de la Justice et du Moulin, late in the day. Next is Terril Renard.
9. Terril Renard
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Terril Renard write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 264 km.
Leg by leg
Terril Renard to Cités de la Justice et du Moulin
Terril Renard → Cités de la Justice et du Moulin is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cités de la Justice et du Moulin to Cité n°10
Cités de la Justice et du Moulin → Cité n°10 is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité n°10 to Terril 34
Cité n°10 → Terril 34 is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Terril 34 to Cité n°2
Terril 34 → Cité n°2 is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité n°2 to back through Terril 34
Cité n°2 → back through Terril 34 is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Terril 34 to back through Cité n°10
back through Terril 34 → back through Cité n°10 is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cité n°10 to back through Cités de la Justice et du Moulin
back through Cité n°10 → back through Cités de la Justice et du Moulin is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cités de la Justice et du Moulin to Terril Renard
back through Cités de la Justice et du Moulin → Terril Renard is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.