Route des bois de Fagne from Aibes

Starting point: town hall car park.

(S/E) Turn left onto the D 963, towards Colleret and Jeumont. At the wayside shrine, turn right onto the GR® de Pays de l’Avesnois (marked yellow on red). After the cemetery, you’ll come to a Fork in the road.

(1) Take the small road on the left. Cross over the railway line, then walk alongside it and follow the first path on the right towards the Ferme de Coulmie; this takes you off the GR® de Pays.

(2) Pass the Ferme de Coulmie on your left (before 1789, it belonged to Aulnes Abbey) and follow a stony path on your right, lined with a lovely hedge of hornbeams. Cross the Ruisseau de Grand Rieux and continue along this path until you reach a tarmac road.

(3) Turn right, cross the railway line with care and take the road. Then turn left onto a grassy path, the Route de Grand Rieux, which runs alongside the stream of the same name. You will come to a junction.

(4) Turn right towards the Bérelles water tower near the D963.

(5) Cross the departmental road with care and , opposite, take the path lined with willows and reeds, which winds through the hedgerow countryside to the Carrefour des Cinq Chemins.

(6) Turn right onto the pleasant path running alongside the Bois du Mesnil. As you leave the woods, take the first turn right then left and, a little further on, pass the imposing farmhouse on your left.

(7) Continue straight on along a grassy path through rolling countryside until you reach the village of Quiévelon.

(8) Turn right onto the main street and follow it to the rock grotto with the statue of the Virgin Mary. Turn right onto the Route d’Aibes. At the entrance to the village, take the first street on the left which leads down towards the church and return to the starting point, making the first turn right then left. (S/E) 

In wet weather, wear waterproof footwear.

This route is listed in the PDIPR (Departmental Plan for Walking and Hiking Routes)

Follow the yellow signposts (Yellow Cross = wrong direction, arrow pointing right = turn right, arrow pointing left = turn left, horizontal line = go straight on)

Rock with a statue of the Virgin Mary at Quiévelon: this grotto was built on the initiative of a parish priest from Colleret, who served the parish of Quiévelon, and three other parishioners. The inauguration took place on 15 August 1958, in the presence of the Archbishop of Cambrai. Every year on 15 August, a major Marian pilgrimage brings together parishioners from the surrounding villages.