Beffroi de Mons and Béguinage de Lier

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Beffroi de Mons is where the day begins. Next is Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict.

2. 2. Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict

   The beeches in the Sonian Forest grow so tall and straight that people call it the cathedral forest, and once you stand under them on a misty autumn morning the name stops sounding like tourist talk. This great woodland on the southeastern edge of Brussels covers thousands of hectares, and most of the famous columns of grey trunks were planted in the late eighteenth century, when the Austrian Habsburgs ruled these lands and their foresters reshaped the old wood. A few patches, including the Tict reserve near La Hulpe and Waterloo, are left to grow wild with no felling at all, and they form part of the UNESCO listing for the ancient and primeval beech forests of Europe, a chain of reserves stretching across the continent.

   Read the complete Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict comes up about 58 km into the recorded legs. Next is Béguinage de Lier.

3. 3. Béguinage de Lier

   Through a gateway off a busy street in Lier, you step into another world. The béguinage is a small walled neighbourhood of narrow cobbled lanes, whitewashed brick houses and a baroque church, where for centuries communities of beguines lived. These were religious women who chose a life of prayer, work and service without taking the permanent vows of nuns, living independently in their own houses but sharing a communal life. The béguinages of Flanders, about a dozen of them, were listed by UNESCO in 1998, and the one in Lier, with its quiet lanes and doorways topped with statues of saints, is one of the most charming.

   Read the complete Béguinage de Lier write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 117 km into the recorded legs you reach Béguinage de Lier. Next is back through Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict.

4. 4. back through Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict, late in the day. Next is Beffroi de Mons.

5. 5. Beffroi de Mons

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Beffroi de Mons write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Beffroi de Mons. That is the ride.