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Park in the free car park on the Place du Marché aux Bestiaux. A sculpture of a Red Flemish cow will welcome you.
(S/E) Walk up the square towards the school.
(1) Turn right just after the Burgundian curtain wall. Go down the four steps and follow the path for about a hundred metres. Then turn right to take a look at the allotments and walk for about 200 metres.
(2) Go down the ten or so steps, turn right once, then right again 30 metres further on and go through the gate in the wall. A few metres past this gate on the right, take a look at the lady and the small lock.
Follow the path straight ahead for 300 metres, then continue straight on, ignoring the path on the right. A first information panel will explain what you are about to discover within the ZNIEFF (Natural Area of Ecological, Faunistic and Floristic Interest).
(3) Enter the ZNIEFF by following the new path opened in 2014. Follow it between the ramparts and the moat. Several information boards will also provide details about the Vauban ramparts.
At the corner of the second bastion, turn right then immediately left to walk alongside the housing estates on your right. Pass the next bastion, where there is a care home, then turn left at a right angle to come out onto Avenue de la Liberté. Turn left.
(4) Cross the road and, just after the Charles Perrault school, take the path immediately that runs as close as possible to the school. A section of rampart, fully restored between 2010 and 2014, lies before you. Don’t miss the magnificent statue, a sluice gate and a casemate that you’ll come across along the way. You will arrive at the edge of the CD 916, also known as Route Fleurie
(5) Cross Route Fleurie at the Porte d’Hondschoote and take the bridge over the Canal de la Basse Colme. Turn left just after the bridge and walk past the Bergues campsite, then the outdoor tennis courts via the Promenade Charles Quint. The small port of Bergues is on your left. Continue along the road and walk alongside the Canal de Bergues for about a hundred metres.
(6) Turn right before the picnic tables to take the Canal du Roy path, which will be on your right, whilst allotments stretch out on your left for several hundred metres. Turn right at the end of the path.
Pass under the Porte aux Boules. Turn immediately left before the first house, walk for about a hundred metres and return to the bridge you crossed earlier. Cross it again and turn right to pass under the Porte d’Hondschoote.
Turn left straight away and take the stone staircase ahead of you. Enjoy the view from the top of the ramparts: the ZNIEFF nature reserve, the Maison de l’Octroi, the Flemish plain and, of course, the famous canal where Dany Boon and Kad Mera went for a wee in the film Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis.
Follow the path to the end, go down the stairs on the right, then turn left onto Avenue de la Liberté to head back towards the Charles Perrault school.
(4) Cross Avenue de la Liberté at the school using the pedestrian crossing, climb the few steps ahead of you, then immediately take the other staircase on your left and follow the upper rampart path for 1.5 km. You will pass the retirement home on your right and the ZNIEFF on your left.
At the end of the path, turn right onto Avenue du Général de Gaulle, cross it and take the Passage Saint-Pierre opposite to reach Rue d’Ypres. Cross Rue d’Ypres to reach the remains of Saint-Winoc Abbey in the heart of the Groenberg.
(7) Walk around the square, pointed tower, whose roof was renovated in 1990. Head back down through the public garden towards the marble gate. Go through the gate, turn immediately left into Rue des Postillons, then right down Rue du Marché aux Chevaux for a good hundred metres.
Take the first left, Rue du Séminaire, at the end of which you will see the Burgundian curtain wall from the start again.
(1) Turn right to reach the Place du Marché aux Bestiaux, where you can park (S/E).
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