Intro:
A hike situated in a nice part of Brabant-Wallon and really worth doing.
We were surprised by the many rural paths, the interesting variation of forests and open landscapes, and the ever sloping hillsides. A hike that once more confirmed the reputation of Brabant-Wallon as an excellent hiking region.
And to make it even more interesting: start and finish of the hike can be reached by train.
Back and forth:
The hike can be easily organised by train.
Wavre is reached with a local train from Leuven (direction Ottignies). The ride takes half an hour.
If you come by car, there's free parking at the station of Wavre. The center where the hike starts is only a 5 minutes walk away.
La Roche has a train station where local trains going to Ottignies stop. In Ottignies you have a connection to Wavre. Together both rides take less than half an hour.
We didn't go back to Wavre, but continued from Ottignies to Leuven and further on to Antwerpen.
The hike:
Looking for a hike not that far away our attention was caught by the cover of the topoguide describing the Walloon part of the GR 12 trail. The booklet also contains a description of the first part of the GR 121 trail, a path linking Wavre to Boulogne-sur-Mer on the French Côte d'Opale. For now, we don't really intend to fully hike this trail, but the positive impressions we have about hiking in Brabant-Wallon, made us curious about the start of this long distance path.
The start took us from Wavre to La Roche. That sounds impressive because most people immediately think about La Roche-en-Ardennes in the province of Luxembourg, but we're not that ambitious ... La Roche in Brabant-Wallon is a hamlet of the village Court-Saint-Etienne, situated less than 40 km. south of Brussels.
(click the picture for more images on Picasa)
We walked with friends and that made us less focussed on taking pictures and gathering background information about the places visited. But even if you're walking this hike blindfolded, you'll notice the mostly soft or rough stony soils, the slopes, the calm in the forests, the cutting northeaster on the open plains, the splashing of the waterbirds and the babbling sound of the fast-fleeting rivulets. In short, this a hike you won't regret.
GR 121 starts at the strange looking townhall of Wavre. It looks like a church, and indeed, that's what it used to be. Until the French Revolution the church was part of an abbey of the Discalced Carmelites (also named the Barefoot Carmelites). In 1807, the city bought the complex and made it the townhall. In 1940 it was bombarded by the Germans and rebuilt by 1960. The civil use of the building explains why the naughty statue of the 'Maca' was installed here. Even if it's possible to find intimate naked body parts on paintings in churches, it's hard to imagine you would find statues you can caress without being looked upon as a pervert ...
Wavre may be the capital of the province of Brabant-Wallon, it certainly isn't a big city. Soon enough, we're walking on a path mounting into the Bois de la Pierre. This forest is followed by the Bois du Mont, then comes a passage through open fields. All the time we're walking in a beautiful hollow road. We arrive at a golf course.
Past the golf course the trail enters another forest, the Bois de Lauzelle. For 2 kilometers the path winds itself through the hills in this dense forest, leading us to the L'Hocaille quarter of Louvain-la-Neuve. Those that still remember the turbulent times of the struggle to make the university of Leuven exclusively flemish, will have to admit that after all it wasn't a bad thing for the Walloon students. Their 'new Leuven' (Louvain-la-Neuve) looks refreshingly young and is primarily designed as a pedestrian town. All is quiet, the only people we see are a few joggers. Everybody is probably attending the classes (or still asleep ...). We descend towards the lake and there it's time for a little surprise. A small kettle, a camping fire, some wine and herbs, and a few minutes later we were sipping from a heartwarming glass of glühwein. With temperatures around freezing point nobody was complaining.
GR 121 now leaves Wallonia's youngest city and heads for the Bois des Rêves. Another forest, the hike keeps up a varied profile. Further up the trail we pass underneath a railroad track, walk along the outskirts of the village of Mousty and then follow a beautiful path along the Bois de Franquenies. We're overlooking a wide open valley. On the other side we recognise the Bois des Rêves and Louvain-la-Neuve. Reaching a school (with a grass field as a playground) we turn back into the forest and descend towards the hamlet of Beaurieux. An old water mill reminds us we're carrying a camera.
The trail now climbs to an open plateau and stays there for a few kilometers. Then it dives back into a little forest and gets to the Chapelle Notre-Dame du Sart in the hamlet Sart-Messire-Guillaume. Another climb, another walk along a forest edge, it's time for a second break. Some bread, another sip of glühwein, and then we're entering a last stretch of forest before arriving at La Roche.
GR 121 passes by the train station, that's easy.
We're early and not feeling tired at all. We decide to extend the hike by adding a loop. We continue on the GR 121 trail towards Bousval. The track never gets boring. Open fields, a forest edge, a path along the wall fencing off the vast park of the castle of Bousval, the trail keeps changing, leading us to the church of Bousval. Somewhat further up the road we meet another trail, GR 126. To complete our loop we now follow this trail southwards. We've been here before, so we know we're heading for the Chapelle du Tri-au-Chêne. In the open fields the cutting northeaster tells us that twilight is setting in. We descend into the valley of the Ri d'Hé and there we leave the GR 126 trail. Our path now follows the brook back towards La Roche. We get out of the valley, cross the railroad and we're back at the little station where we started the loop. Just in time before dark.
We indicated the loop on the map. Including the loop the hike amounts to 29,7 km.
Ten minutes later our train entered the station.
