Lo is one of the smallest towns in Belgium, a cluster of brick houses around a market square in the flat polders of the Westhoek, a few kilometres from the French border. Its former town hall, built in the sixteenth century in Renaissance style, has a small belfry tower, and it is part of the UNESCO-listed Belfries of Belgium and France, alongside much grander towers in Bruges, Ghent and Lille. It is a reminder that even tiny towns had civic pride and privileges worth announcing to the world.
The town's other claims to fame are a medieval gate, the Westpoort, and an old yew tree beside it, to which, according to local legend, Julius Caesar tied his horse. The legend is improbable, but the tree is genuinely ancient, its trunk hollowed and propped, and the townspeople guard it fondly. Lo is now part of the municipality of Lo-Reninge, and the surrounding countryside is a patchwork of fields, pastures, drainage ditches and willow rows.
This was the front line in the First World War. A few kilometres east, the Yser river and its flooded plain stopped the German advance in October 1914, when the Belgians opened sluices at Nieuwpoort to inundate the land. Diksmuide, ten kilometres away, has the Yser Tower, a memorial and museum, and the Trench of Death, a preserved section of Belgian trenches. Military cemeteries dot the landscape, and the poppies that grow along field edges in early summer feel anything but decorative here.
For riders, the Westhoek is flat and windy, with narrow, straight roads between fields, cobbled village squares, and lots of cyclists. It is not dramatic, but it is peaceful, especially early in the morning, when mist lies over the fields. Fuel is easy in Diksmuide or Alveringem. Try the local beers from small breweries, many of them run by monks or families, and the regional cheeses. Across the border, Dunkirk and the Flemish part of France are within easy reach.