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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
283 km from Haillicourt to Haillicourt, about 4 h 53 of riding. The stops in between: Cité Saint-Paul, Terril 125a, Compagnie des Mines d’Anzin: Ensemble comm and Beffroi de Mons. It crosses from France into Belgium - carry ID and check the toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
Two near-perfect black cones rise from the farmland between Ruitz, Maisnil-lès-Ruitz and Haillicourt, and once you have spotted them you will keep seeing them for miles. These twin terrils, the spoil heaps of former coal pits, are among the tallest in the Nord-Pas de Calais basin and have become something of a regional emblem. They look volcanic, which in a way they are: shale and waste rock tipped there for decades by the mining companies, slowly settling into steep, smooth pyramids that turn purple-grey in rain and almost silver in bright sun.
Read the complete Terrils Jumeaux 28 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Terrils Jumeaux 28 is where the day begins. Next is Cité Saint-Paul.
The mining basin of northern France is a flat, open country that seems to have been built entirely by hand, and among the first things you notice are the hills that nature never put there. They are the terrils, the slag heaps of the coal mines, some of them more than a hundred metres high, and around Courrières they punctuate the horizon between rows of brick houses. The Cité Saint-Paul belongs to this world: a miners' housing estate, laid out by the mining company with its rows of uniform houses, gardens, schools and a church, so that a worker could live, shop and pray within the company's reach.
Read the complete Cité Saint-Paul write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cité Saint-Paul comes up about 34 km into the recorded legs. Next is Terril 125a.
On the southern edge of the coal basin, where Auberchicourt, Écaillon and Aniche run into one another, a long spoil heap rises above the brick roofs and the fields. Terril 125a is one of the many numbered heaps that the Nord-Pas de Calais inventory catalogues, and it belongs to the old concession of the Compagnie des mines d'Aniche, one of the historic coal companies of the region. Aniche itself is a reminder that the north was not only about coal: the town had a long glassmaking tradition, and the combination of fuel, sand and labour made the area an industrial hub well before the twentieth century.
Read the complete Terril 125a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 70 km into the recorded legs you reach Terril 125a. Next is Compagnie des Mines d’Anzin: Ensemble comm.
In 1757, a group of aristocrats and entrepreneurs founded the Compagnie des Mines d'Anzin to work the coal seams found under the plains near Valenciennes. It grew into one of the largest industrial companies in France, owning dozens of pits, thousands of workers' houses and its own schools, churches and shops. The ensemble here at Fresnes-sur-Escaut, close to the Belgian border, includes buildings connected with the company's long history, and it is part of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin World Heritage site.
Read the complete Compagnie des Mines d’Anzin: Ensemble comm write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Compagnie des Mines d’Anzin: Ensemble comm, about halfway. Next is Beffroi de Mons.
Belgium has many belfries, but only one in the baroque style, and it rises above Mons on the hill where the medieval castle stood. Built in the seventeenth century, it is about eighty-seven metres tall, with a carillon of forty-nine bells, and it was listed by UNESCO with the other belfries of Belgium and France. A lift takes visitors to the top, where the view stretches across the Borinage, the old coal-mining country around the city, and over the rooftops of the old town. Inside, an interpretation centre tells the story of the tower.
Read the complete Beffroi de Mons write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Beffroi de Mons sits at 142 km, about halfway. Next is back through Compagnie des Mines d’Anzin: Ensemble comm.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Compagnie des Mines d’Anzin: Ensemble comm write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Compagnie des Mines d’Anzin: Ensemble comm comes up about 181 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Terril 125a.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Terril 125a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 216 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Terril 125a. Next is back through Cité Saint-Paul.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité Saint-Paul write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cité Saint-Paul, late in the day. Next is Terrils Jumeaux 28.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Terrils Jumeaux 28 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 283 km.
Terrils Jumeaux 28 → Cité Saint-Paul is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité Saint-Paul → Terril 125a is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Terril 125a → Compagnie des Mines d’Anzin: Ensemble comm is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Compagnie des Mines d’Anzin: Ensemble comm → Beffroi de Mons is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de Mons → back through Compagnie des Mines d’Anzin: Ensemble comm is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Compagnie des Mines d’Anzin: Ensemble comm → back through Terril 125a is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Terril 125a → back through Cité Saint-Paul is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cité Saint-Paul → Terrils Jumeaux 28 is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.