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.
Mons is the capital of Hainaut, a city of about ninety thousand, lively and full of students. Every year, on Trinity Sunday, it celebrates the Doudou, a festival in which a reliquary of Saint Waltrude is carried through the streets, followed by the Lumeçon, a mock battle between Saint George and a dragon in the main square, watched by a dense crowd that tries to grab hairs from the dragon's tail for luck. The festival is recognised by UNESCO as part of the intangible heritage of humanity. The city was also the scene of the first and last British battles of the First World War, in August 1914 and November 1918.
The riding around Mons is gentle, with the Borinage to the west, a landscape of former mining towns and slag heaps, and the Hainaut countryside to the east and south, with farms, forests and villages. Vincent van Gogh lived in the Borinage as a young preacher, and his house in Cuesmes can be visited. The roads are generally good, but cobbles appear in town centres, and the city's streets climb steeply to the belfry. Weather is changeable, with rain and wind.
Mons has filling stations, supermarkets and inns. Food here is Walloon, with stews, rabbit with prunes, fries and local beers, including those from the nearby Trappist abbeys. The Grand-Place is lined with cafés and restaurants, and on its town hall a small bronze monkey is rubbed for luck by passers-by. Climb the belfry on a clear day, look out over the Borinage, then come down and give the monkey a pat; it cannot hurt.