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 186 km round trip from Pecquencourt - roughly 3 h 10 in the saddle. It goes by way of Cité de la Parisienne, La citadella d’Arras, Paysage et ensemble miniers de Barlin and back through La citadella d’Arras. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
East of Douai, the Scarpe river winds through a green valley of marshes, woods and meadows, and rising out of it, near Pecquencourt and Lallaing, are the heaps numbered 143 and 143a, spoil from the mines that once operated here. Today they are part of the Scarpe-Escaut regional nature park and the World Heritage listing of the mining basin, and they are covered with trees and paths, home to birds and plants.
Read the complete Terrils 143 et 143 a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Terrils 143 et 143 a is where the day begins. Next is Cité de la Parisienne.
Drocourt is the sort of place you could ride through without a second glance, and you would miss a small piece of the story of northern France. The Cité de la Parisienne is a mining housing estate on the edge of the town, a grid of brick houses built by the coal company for its workers and their families, part of the UNESCO-listed Mining Basin. The name comes from the company that dug coal here. Hénin-Beaumont and Rouvroy press in on either side, and the black cones of the slag heaps rise above the rooftops.
Read the complete Cité de la Parisienne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cité de la Parisienne comes up about 31 km into the recorded legs. Next is La citadella d’Arras.
The people of Arras call their citadel la belle inutile, the beautiful useless one, and they say it with affection. Vauban built it in the late seventeenth century, after Louis XIV took Artois from Spain, as part of the chain of fortresses meant to lock France's northern border. Its star-shaped ramparts, bastions and moats are textbook Vauban, but the border moved north before the fortress ever saw a serious siege, hence the nickname. It is one of the twelve sites grouped as the Fortifications of Vauban on the UNESCO list since 2008. Its later history is darker: during the Second World War, the Germans executed resistance fighters in the moat, and a memorial there lists their names.
Read the complete La citadella d’Arras write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 60 km into the recorded legs you reach La citadella d’Arras. Next is Paysage et ensemble miniers de Barlin.
Barlin is where the coalfield starts to run into hills. To the west, the land rises gently into the Artois uplands, and the mining town sits at the transition, its slag heaps, workers' houses and pit buildings now part of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Mining Basin World Heritage site. It is a quieter corner than Lens or Douai, and the mix of industrial history and rolling countryside makes it a pleasant place to pause.
Read the complete Paysage et ensemble miniers de Barlin write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Paysage et ensemble miniers de Barlin, about halfway. Next is back through La citadella d’Arras.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete La citadella d’Arras write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through La citadella d’Arras sits at 104 km, about halfway. Next is back through Cité de la Parisienne.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité de la Parisienne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cité de la Parisienne comes up about 153 km into the recorded legs. Next is Terrils 143 et 143 a.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Terrils 143 et 143 a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Terrils 143 et 143 a closes the day.
Terrils 143 et 143 a → Cité de la Parisienne is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité de la Parisienne → La citadella d’Arras is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
La citadella d’Arras → Paysage et ensemble miniers de Barlin is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Paysage et ensemble miniers de Barlin → back through La citadella d’Arras is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through La citadella d’Arras → back through Cité de la Parisienne is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cité de la Parisienne → Terrils 143 et 143 a is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.