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: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
297 km from La Louvière to La Louvière, about 4 h 45 of riding. The stops in between: Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict, Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort, Maison & Atelier Horta and Belfort en Schepenhuis / Beffroi et maison. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
The coal that powered Belgium came from a ribbon of pits across Hainaut, and Bois-du-Luc is where the story is told best. The mining company here, the Societe de Bois-du-Luc, was founded in the late seventeenth century, making it one of the oldest in Europe, and it kept going until the pit closed in 1973. The site is now a museum and heritage centre, and it is listed by UNESCO as one of the Major Mining Sites of Wallonia, together with Grand-Hornu, Bois du Cazier and Blegny-Mine.
Read the complete Bois-du-Luc write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bois-du-Luc is where the day begins. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict comes up about 47 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort.
Leuven is a university town through and through. Its university, founded in 1425, is the oldest in the Low Countries, and its students fill the streets, cafés and squares, giving the city a youthful energy. At its heart is the Grote Markt, dominated by two buildings: the Town Hall, a Gothic masterpiece covered in hundreds of statues, and opposite it, the Church of St Peter, a great Gothic church whose tower was never finished but which is part of the UNESCO-listed Belfries of Belgium and France.
Read the complete Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 81 km into the recorded legs you reach Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort. Next is Maison & Atelier Horta.
From the street, the house at Rue Américaine in Saint-Gilles is pleasant but unassuming, a narrow town house of stone and iron among many others. Inside, it becomes something else entirely: a flowing space of curving wrought iron, stained glass, mosaic floors and woodwork that seems to grow like plant tendrils, all bathed in light from a glass roof over the stairwell. Victor Horta, one of the founders of Art Nouveau, built it as his home and studio between 1898 and 1901, and it is now a museum dedicated to his work. In 2000, it was listed by UNESCO together with three other Horta town houses in Brussels, including the Hôtel Tassel, often cited as the first true Art Nouveau building.
Read the complete Maison & Atelier Horta write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Maison & Atelier Horta, about halfway. Next is Belfort en Schepenhuis / Beffroi et maison.
Aalst's Schepenhuis, the old aldermen's house on the Grote Markt, is reckoned to be the oldest surviving town hall in the Low Countries, its oldest parts going back to the thirteenth century, and its belfry, added later, carries the bells that once regulated the town's life. Together they are part of the UNESCO listing of the Belfries of Belgium and France. In front of them stands a statue of Dirk Martens, who set up one of the first printing presses in the Southern Netherlands here in the 1470s and later printed works by Erasmus and Thomas More.
Read the complete Belfort en Schepenhuis / Beffroi et maison write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Belfort en Schepenhuis / Beffroi et maison sits at 150 km, about halfway. Next is back through Maison & Atelier Horta.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Maison & Atelier Horta write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Maison & Atelier Horta comes up about 185 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 219 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict, late in the day. Next is Bois-du-Luc.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bois-du-Luc write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 297 km.
Bois-du-Luc → Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict → Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort → Maison & Atelier Horta is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Maison & Atelier Horta → Belfort en Schepenhuis / Beffroi et maison is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Belfort en Schepenhuis / Beffroi et maison → back through Maison & Atelier Horta is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Maison & Atelier Horta → back through Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort → back through Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict → Bois-du-Luc is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.