HIKING
The Great Hiking Trail number 12 passes our area in north-south direction:
from Fagnolle, through Dourbes and olloy to Oignies and the French frontier. The
Great hiking Trail 125 makes a circle around the Entre-Sambre-et Meuse region
and frequents Frasnes, Nismes, olloy, Vierves, Treignes and Mazée. You can get
route descriptions at (www.grsentiers.org;
www.groteroutepaden.be).
On the territory of Viroinval, including Nismes, you can find a whole set of
marked walking trails of in total more than three hundred kilometers. You can
order the map with these trails on scale 1/25.000 at our adress.
BIKING
On the territory of Viroinval, Philippeville, Doische, Couvin and Cerfontaine there are marked biking trails for more or less 365 kilometers. Also the map with these trails, on scale 1/50.000, you can order at our adress.
Between Mariembourg, four kilometers from "La Calestienne", and
Hoegaarden on a distance of more than 120 kilometers is the Ravel 2, a carfree
hiking- and biking trail on the tracé of former railroads and towing lines
along the river Meuse. You can find a beautiful booklet with summary in English
at http://www.ravel.wallonie.be.
Between Olloy-sur-Viroin and Oignies-en-Thiérache there is a six kilometers
long biking trail on the trac of the former tram between both villages..... €
voor een halve dag.
You can rent mountain bikes through "La Calestienne", at € .... per day or € ... for half a day.
SPORTS
ULM: Matagne-la-Petite, Plaine de Bieure (060/39.96.67.)
Karting Mariembourg, Industriepark (060/31.26.70.)
MLotor and Car Circuit Chimay (060/21.33.32.)
Kayak to rent (060/39.92.24.): Dourbes-Treignes = 20 km
Climbing:
Carrière Prosper, Olloy-sur-Viroin
Maiselle, Dourbes, close to the ruins of Haute Roche.
(Fondry des Chiens, Nismes)
Indoor Climbing Wall Doische (082/67.85.58.)
Horse riding
Tennis
Swimming pools
Cerfontaine (071/63.10.63.)
Rocroi
Nismes (060/31.00.10.)
NATURE
GEOLOGY
In a radius of fifteen kilometers you can find numerous quarries where you can find fossils of the Frasnian period and you can see how the Belgian Marble was exploited; What you can't see in the field you can go and see at the Marble Museum of Rance (060/41.20.48.).
At both sides of the Belgian-french frontier you can find the remnants of the
former slate industry: entrances of the quarries, the big waste piles, the
beautiful dry slate walls, the slate garden fences, and also the Slarte Museums
of Fumay and Rimogne (resp. 0033/324.41.10.25. en 0033/324.35.13.14.).
In Vireux at the French-Belgian frontier, you can find the Mur des Douanniers (i.e. The Wall of the Custom Officers), one of the first geological reserves of France. In consequence you are not longer allowed to search here for trilobites or other fossils, but you can go and see a collection of them at the Mineralogical Museum of Bopgny (0033/324.32.05.02.), some kilometers south, following the river Meuse.
ARCHEOLOGY
At a distance of less than fifteen kilometers you can visit three
archeological sites where the ruins of Roman constructions are kept visible: a
temple complex in Matagne-la-Grande, a Roman villa in Treignes and a military
fortress with view on the river Meuse in Vireux. In Treignes you can visit
the MUSEE
DU MALGRE-TOUT where exhibitions about archeology follow each
other each half year.
At five kilometers distance from "La Calestienne" you can go and visit the ruins of the twelfth century castle of Dourbes, where you have a great vieuw on the village of Dourbes.
LOCAL HISTORY
Cul-des-Sarts,
Museum of Cerfontaine (http://users.skynet.be/cerfontaine)
Ecomusée of Treignes (http://www.ulb.ac.be/ulb-wallonie)
Ecomusée of Fourmies-Trelon
Steam trains en old diesels in Mariembourg
Museum of Steam Locomotifs in Treignes
Beaumont
Glass Museum of Fourmies
Museum of the TSF (0033/324.56.12.41.)
Espace Arthur Masson (060/39.15.00.)
Astronomic watch of Senzeille
Metaal Museum of Bogny (0033/324.32.13.16.)
The Most Beautiful Villages of Wallonia: Vierves, Fagnolle, Lompret, Soulme
HISTORY
Bunker of Hitler (060/34.01.43.)
Subterrannean galleries of Philippeville (071/66.89.85.)
Museum of the Battle of Rocroi (0033/324.54.20.06.)
Miliatry Fort Charlemont at Givet (0033/321.42.03.54.)
Castle of Chimay (060/21.28.23.)
Ruins of the castle of Montcornet (0033/324.54.93.48.)
MARKETS
Tuesday: Rocroi/Charleville-Mézières
Wednesday: Fumay, Sedan
Thursday: Vireux/Charleville-Mézières/Rethel
Friday: Chimay/Givet
Saturday: Nismes/Charleville-Mézières/Sedan/Vouziers
Sunday: Mariembourg/Charleroi
BEER
Brewery of the Fagnes: Super des Fagnes
Brewery of the Trappist Monks of Chimay: (060/21.03.11.)
Brewery of Silenrieux: Sara and Joseph
Gambrinus Drivers Museum (trucks of breweries) (082/67.83.48.)