Wiers – Belœil

(S) From your accommodation, return to the starting point on the GR® 122. Follow it, continuing on from yesterday’s stage, until you reach Rue de la Garenne. Follow this road to the left. At the first junction, turn right onto Rue du Colombier (leaving the GR® 122). When it becomes Rue du Tordoir, carry on straight ahead. Cross over the Verne de Bury. At the ‘Y’ junction, keep left onto Rue du Tordoir until you reach a ‘T’ junction.

(1) At Rue Blanche, turn left onto it. At the first junction, take Rue de Rengies to the right and, a little further on, take the first path on the left, rejoining the GR® 122. After a short right-left bend, at the ‘T’ junction that follows, take the Voie verte des Gueules Noires to the right. Leave the GR® 122. Very soon, you will enter French territory and reach Rengies.

(2) Turn left onto Rue Adolphe Calonne and return to Belgium. Take Rue d’Obiéssart diagonally to the front left. Continue straight ahead. The street becomes Rue du Trieu and then Rue d’Hergnies.

(3) Cross Rue des Rocs by taking the street directly opposite, Rue Gavette. At the T-junction, turn right onto Rue Victor Cretteur and continue to number 78. Take the path (or track?) opposite, between houses 63 and 65. It turns right, then left, and leads onto Rue du Bas du Rieu.

(4) Follow this street to the right. At the first junction, carry on straight ahead, pass the cemetery and follow the left-hand branch of the ‘Y’ junctions twice (Rue du Cimetière then Rue E. Baijot) until you reach Avenue des la Basilique. Turn right and go round the Bon-Secours Basilica on the left. The Franco-Belgian border is just behind the building.

(5) Go down Rue de la Forêt and carry on straight ahead to join this road. Ignore all paths or tracks coming from the left. Keep going straight ahead until you reach a path turning right at a right angle. At the next junction, turn left and carry on straight ahead.

(6) Cross the “Blaton bypass” and take Rue du Pont de Pierre opposite. Join the Ravel as soon as possible.

(7) Cross the old Pommerœil–Antoing Canal (right-hand branch) at the first crossing point. Join the other branch of the canal and follow it to the right. Before the next bridge, take the path on the right leading to the track that crosses the canal and then the N 505. Continue through the woodland, crossing Rue E. Carlier. When you reach Rue du Mont d’Or, turn right, cross Rue du Fayt and join the Vieux Canal d’Ath.

(8) Do not cross the bridge but head down along the canal to the right. Pass under the motorway and continue to the first bridge and Rue du Fayt. Join this road and turn right, then left onto Rue de la Sablière. The road splits into two. Take the right-hand branch, which climbs through the woods to La Bruyère (E).

At (8), if you cross at this point, turn right straight away along the canal and cross Canal 4 again at one of the first locks before the one by the Rue du Fayt bridge (bridge closed).

(5) The Basilica of Bon-Secours.

(8) The old little Ath Canal with its succession of small locks.