British soldiers marching to the front in the First World War left Ypres by the road that led east towards Menen, and the gate they passed through became the Menin Gate, now a memorial bearing the names of more than fifty thousand soldiers with no known grave. Menen itself, about twenty kilometres from Ypres, sits right on the French border, on the river Leie, which the French call the Lys, and its town hall and belfry, standing on the market square, are part of the UNESCO listing of the belfries of Belgium and France. The belfry, like much of the town, was damaged in the war and rebuilt, and it remains the proud symbol of the town's civic history.
Menen and its French neighbour Halluin form a single built-up area, divided by the river and the border, and crossing between them is as simple as crossing a street. The area has a long history as a centre of textile production, especially linen, made from flax grown in the surrounding fields and retted in the waters of the Leie, which were said to give the linen its quality. The Leie valley was once lined with flax mills and warehouses, and the National Flax Museum in Kortrijk, a few kilometres downstream, tells the story.
The riding around Menen is flat and urban, with busy roads, industrial areas and plenty of traffic. It is not a destination for spectacular roads, but it makes a good starting point for exploring the battlefields of the Ypres Salient, with cemeteries, memorials and museums scattered across the landscape. The Menin Road, now a busy main road, leads to Ypres, where the Last Post is played every evening at the Menin Gate, a moving ceremony that has taken place almost without interruption since 1928. To the south, across the border, Lille is a large and lively city with a fine old town and excellent food.
Menen, a town of over thirty thousand people, has fuel, shops and restaurants. The local food is a mix of Flemish and French, with mussels and fries, stews cooked in beer, and the cheeses and pastries of northern France. The weather is mild but often grey and damp, with rain possible at any time of year, and the wind can be strong across the flat land.