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Marche of the Beez

— A walk in Wallonie with two places of interest differently affected by the French Revolution.”

The French Revolution traumatised the Walloon region, which was itself under French control. Throughout the last decade of the 18th century, the situation was tense and culminated in the unsuccessful Peasants’ War.

Elsewhere however, France had been irreparably weakened and full Belgian independence was barely thirty years away. The Revolution also touched the two points of interest on this walk, one an old Cistercian abbey and the other an elegant château.

• Walking route: Abbaye de Notre-Dame du Vivier – Gelbressée – Franc-Waret – Gelbressée – Abbaye de Notre-Dame du Vivier (loop) detailed commentary
• Distance: 16km
• Inspired by a different walk by Gert Sonck at Originele wandelingen in België

Château de Franc-Waret

The route passes this impressive château at about the halfway point. The structure we see today was built by the de Groesbeeck family in 1748, replacing a much earlier, more fortified version.

Following a reassignment of property after the Revolution, the château passed to a French family in 1792 in whose possession it remains today. The château is not open to the public.

Source: Wikipedia

Abbaye de Notre-Dame du Vivier

The walk starts and ends at the Abbaye de Notre-Dame du Vivier. Very little documentation is extant on the site’s formative years but it seems ever to have been connected to religious functions, from the time when women sheltered there while their men were crusading in the eleventh century. Before the abbey itself, there was probably a hospice.

The tombstones of several abbesses can still be seen today, the death of the earliest of these (Marie de Bervier) was engraved in 1447. The abbey flourished until the turn of the eighteenth century, when a letter written by abbess Catherine Woot de Triexhe to Carlos II of Spain – requesting the right to cut and sell the wood from some forested land – shows that it was struggling to survive. Fortunately the abbey was saved from further privations by its next abbess Marguerite de Bulley, who brought with her the funds needed for restoration. Work continued until 1769 but the French Revolution closed the abbey just a few years later.

During the nineteenth century, most of the abbey’s objets d’art were sold off. Several orders occupied the buildings thereafter for brief periods, the Carmelites were the last of these and they left in 1965. Today, the abbey is occupied again by a group comprised of both lay and religious members called Madonna House.

Source: Les Amis de Marches-les-Dames – Wartet. The abbaye is open to the public only during the Journées du Patrimoine de Wallonie.

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Marche of the Beez

Cliffs, climbers and a château. Plus a bit of sunshine for a change.

Detailed commentary

Larger map of this route

Leave the abbey car park and turn left back towards the main road. Turn right onto the main road, taking care for traffic. At the end of the abbey walls, turn right into a small lane and follow it as far as a row of houses.

Turn right in front of the houses and into a small path that runs next to the high wall of the abbey, passing first a gatehouse and then running straight beside a second house and a stream.

On reaching the road, cross and follow a narrow path that runs initially beside a stream and then bends away. Follow this path uphill through woodlands and ignore any side tracks. Eventually leave the wood and cross the road on the edge of Gelbressée.

Follow the road through the houses until reaching a t-junction. Take the grassy path on the left beside the house and at the next t-junction of paths, turn right and head downhill to the main road.

Cross the main road carefully and go uphill on a small street opposite. On reaching a junction to the left with a shale driveway, turn onto this and follow it almost to the end. By the last house, follow the grassy path to the right and follow it between fields then sharply downhill to a road junction.

Follow the road right then take the right fork uphill onto a grassy path that runs beside Rue de Ferraire and climbs to the village church. Turn right just after the church onto a road that becomes a cobbly track with GR markings (red and white stripes).

On reaching a large vineyard, turn left onto a path that runs beside it. Follow the path right around the edge of the vineyard, always keeping the vines to the right.

At a crossroads, go straight on the road running alongside woodland. Pass the old stone gateposts of the Chateau Franc-Waret and take the next road to the right flanked by houses (Rue des Ecoles). At the end of the road, turn right and pass the Chateau. Continue straight on (Rue Haute Fontaine) and eventually retrace your steps on the cobbly road by the vineyard back to the church.

Turn left at the church, once again descending the grassy path down to the road and follow it as far as a Second World War memorial, at which turn right into Rue des Casernes. Cross a stream and go straight as far as a junction with the main road at which there is a chapel.

Carefully cross the main road at the bridge just to the left of this junction and go straight into Rue Notre Dame du Vivier. Moments later, take the track uphill to the right which runs between fields as far as the driveway of a house. On reaching the main road, follow it briefly uphill on the left side and take the first left.

Follow this small road straight as it becomes a track at the edge of a woodland. Go straight downhill along the edge of the wood and the narrow path descends quite steeply in a deep cleft.

As the hill bottoms out, the path forks. Take the right fork uphill. The path twists and turns but is quite easy to follow. At a junction with a wider track, go right uphill. Go straight over at the next crossroads until a slight descent meets another wide track. To the left, the wide track can be seen running straight for a considerable distance. Follow this as far as the next junction, at which turn sharp right and go downhill. Soon after, go left onto a track marked with a blue square and follow this through the woodlands.

On reaching the next t-junction, turn left and follow the track, still marked with a blue square. Along this section of the route there is a panoramic view to the right at the very edge of the cliff face that overlooks the Meuse. The views are excellent but there are no safety barriers so in poor weather this could be very dangerous.

After the panoramic detour, continue on the main path. Two junctions follow in close succession, keep going straight at each. Continue on the path as it bends gradually to the left and go straight as other paths join it from the right. Keep following the path as it bends quite sharply to the left and hairpins downhill before reaching a wide track. Turn right onto the wide track.

Descend through the woodland on this wide track, passing a chapel set back on the right on a bend and eventually reach the abbey perimeter and the row of houses from near the start of the walk. Again follow the road up to the main road and carefully follow the main road up the side of the abbey wall before turning left and arriving back at the car parking area of the abbey.