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The white stuff

— Home of the world's most famous white beer, Hoegaarden is surrounded by the vast wheat fields needed to brew the stuff.”

Julos Beaucarne’s Pagodes, Ferme de Wahenge

Hoegaarden is home to the world’s most famous white beer. When megabrewery InBev tried to move production to another facility in 2006, the quality of the beer suffered, so Hoegaarden’s tradition continues.

Surrounding the town are the vast wheat fields required to produce all that hazy liquid gold. This walk crosses a few of them, before heading into Wallonie and passing the strange Pagodes field at the Ferme de Wahenge before wending its way alongside the Grande Gette river until it becomes the Flemish Grote Gete back at Hoegaarden.

The renowned singer-songwriter Julos Beaucarne built the aforementioned Pagodes, thirty six in number and constructed primarily from industrial cable drums. A household name in Wallonie, he will be best known to many foreigners as the author of the texts on the E411 roadsigns, which include Cris et chuchotements (Walibi Wavre), Trois crayons dessinent le ciel (Vêves) and perhaps most memorably for La Molignée, Mélange étrange d’églises et de granges. The full list can be found in a Le Soir archive article.

• Walking route: Hoegaarden – Mélin – Saint-Rémy-Geest – Zétrud-Lumay – Hoegaarden (loop)
• Distance: 20km

Map

Larger map of this route