Thanks for the MRA loops from Bouillon, Richard. Unfortunately, the last time I rode here I was using Calimoto and had terrible problems, hence seeing the light and throwing my lot in with MRA!
I've ridden quite a lot of route 4 and the run up the Meuse North to Givet is wonderful (The fort is never open). We took a very slight detour near waypoint 11 to the West to the lake - Lac de Vieilles Forges. We had a very pleasant lunch in the almost lakeside restaurant on a lovely warm day. It is popular but there's always somewhere to park bikes.Got some days out from Bouillon, mate?
+ 1 on Chez BettyIt’s a bit further down but Chez Betty does a great steak.
It’s here but not showing on Google Street View
Think this is the coffee place
did s/he tell someone from the Flemish part of Belgium to fuck off?I read in the reviews of Chez Betty, that the owner is a grumpy racialist. I’ll sign him up for UKGSer.
Hmmm. chez Betty doesn’t look promising…
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Where you kipping, bro?
Wapping, as usual, has got this more than covered; the Hotel de la Poste in Bouillion is to be recommended, however, I would also suggest that if you are in the neighbourhood, take in a lap of the historic race circuit at Chimay (highlighted in red), then on your way to Bouillion, make sure you ride the N589 from Baileux to Regniowez. Be careful on the N589 where the star is on the right hand bend - easy to get caught out on this as the bend tightens and in a group I frequently ride these roads with, it's now knows as 'Corlett Corner'.
Jules de Thier, owner of the Liège newspaper La Meuse, was looking for a site to host a race, and following a meeting at the Hotel des Bruyères in Francorchamps, with burgomaster Joseph de Crawhez and racing-car driver Henri Langlois van Ophem, it was decided that the roads from Spa-Francorchamps to the former German Malmedy, to Stavelot, and back towards Francorchamps constituted an ideal triangle-shaped circuit with few tight corners and long fast sections.
Eau Rouge creek was the Belgian-German Empire border[5][6] until 1920, with the Ancienne Douane customs office being rather recent than ancient. After passing through former German Bürnenville, the track crossed the former border again halfway on the road between Malmedy and Stavelot, at the junction of the Meiz road. In Stavelot, there was a sharp right-hander, later replaced with a sweeping bypass.
The original Spa-Francorchamps circuit was essentially a speed course, with drivers managing higher average speeds than on other road race tracks. At the time, the Belgians took pride in having a very fast circuit, and to improve average speeds, in 1939 the former Ancienne Douane slow uphill U-turn after the bottom of the Eau Rouge creek valley was cut short with a faster sweep straight up the hill, called the Raidillon. In public traffic until 2000, at Eau Rouge, southbound traffic was allowed to use the famous uphill corner, while the opposite downhill traffic had to use the old road and U-turn behind the grandstands, rejoining the race track at the bottom of Eau Rouge. Around 2001, a new bypass road N62c was built to the East, and the track was closed to the public as the road from Stavelot to Blanchimont became a cul-de-sac.
The old race track continued through the dynamic Kemmel curves (straightened in 1979) to the highest part of the track (104 m (341 ft) above the lowest part), then went downhill into Les Combes, a fast, slightly banked downhill left-hand corner towards Burnenville, passing this village in a fast right hand sweep. Near Malmedy, the Masta straight began, which was only interrupted by the Masta Kink between farm houses before arriving at the town of Stavelot. Then, the track progressed through an uphill straight section with a few bends called La Carriere, going through two high-speed turns (the former being an unnamed right-hand turn, and the latter named Blanchimont) before braking very hard, for the Bus Stop chicane that was added later, and for La Source hairpin, that rejoined the downhill start finish section (as opposed to today where the start–finish section is before La Source).