Four day Ardennes trip - suggestions?

[the woodster]

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!

 

[Arsey]

This looks like the place:

View attachment 305647

It’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

 

[the woodster]

Got some days out from Bouillon, mate?

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.

 

[the woodster]

It’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

+ 1 on Chez Betty
and Il Siciliana - https://maps.app.goo.gl/XYgXJ4eVYCzCSro16

 

[Wegby]

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'.

 

[Arsey]

+ 1 on Chez Betty
and Il Siciliana - https://maps.app.goo.gl/XYgXJ4eVYCzCSro16

Aye

Sent from my N65

 

[Wapping]

I read in the reviews of Chez Betty, that the owner is a grumpy racialist. I’ll sign him up for UKGSer.

 

[wessie]

I read in the reviews of Chez Betty, that the owner is a grumpy racialist. I’ll sign him up for UKGSer.

did s/he tell someone from the Flemish part of Belgium to fuck off?

 

[Nin]

Hmmm. chez Betty doesn’t look promising…




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[Arsey]

Hmmm. chez Betty doesn’t look promising…

View attachment 305727


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Damn. Love it there


Sent from my N65

 

[Nin]

Where you kipping, bro?

With not a single original thought, I’ve booked St Omer budget Ibis, and Hotel de la Poste, Buillon (view of the river, though).

We’ll hoon back to Folkestone in a day on the Peage, flaunting our Emovis Tag blippers.

 

[Wapping]

Cool beans, as the kids say.

 

[Rasher]

Heres some;

Ardennes and Lux

 

[Flintlock]

If one of those routes is not too far away you should stop at La Gleize to see the King Tiger parked up there (if you have not already been). An impressive sight - hard to imagine what it would have been like to see one of them rumbling towards you back then.

 

[AndyB_11]

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'.

You can actually do an enhanced tour of road circuits.

Start at Bouillon
Circuit de Reims Gueux
Chimay
Mettet
Gedinne
Bouilon

Mettet circuit is just a little man made one aimed really at supermoto racing but there used to be a proper road circuit there so it forms part of any lap of the old road race circuits.

 

[Wapping]

You could also map out and ride the original and very long Spa-Francorchsmps circuit.

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).

I was lucky enough to ride and drive down from la Source, past the old pits (still used for the six-hour Spa Classic) through Eau Rouge and up the hill, when it was still a public road in the 1980’s. It is incredibly steep downhill and no less steep up the other side, it finishing in a blind crest, before the long straight uphill drag to les Combes and the plateau at the top.

 

[AndyB_11]

On the subject of Spa, here’s a photo of Eau Rouge with the lead group from the TdF going through one Monday lunchtime.

Zoom out and it becomes very clear where I was standing and right in front is the tunnel into the paddock area.

 

[Nin]

Just transposin’

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[Nin]

Routes of awesomeness

 

[Wapping]

Enjoy. As our American cousins are prone to say, a little too often.