© Lonely Planet 208 Hainaut & Brabant Wallon There’s much more to western Wallonia than initially meets the eye. While townscapes here lack the magic of Bruges or Ghent, the area hosts some of Belgium’s craziest and most unmissable annual festivals, including the Mons ‘Doudou’ ( p214 ), Ath’s giants’ parade ( p18 ) and Lessines’ penitents’ procession (p16 ). Binche’s renowned carnival ( p216) had such a historic reputation for excess that it gave the English language the term ‘binge’. On Brussels’ southern fringe, the world-famous Waterloo Battlefield is one of Belgium’s most popular tourist draws. Tournai and Nivelles sport Belgium’s finest Romanesque churches. And with your own wheels there are many offbeat attractions to seek out, from unique canal-workings to the beers of Silly, along with some magnificent chateaux and the particularly haunting abbey ruins at Aulne and Villers-la-Ville. Once-vibrant Charleroi and La Louvière are often associated with industrial decay but beyond Charleroi’s slag heaps lies some very pretty, undulating farmland. This area lacks the name recognition of the Ardennes but is often more instantly attractive if you prefer patchworks of woodland over blanket forests. If it is forests you’re after, head south into the Botte du Hainaut, which, though partly in Namur province, is covered for convenience in this chapter. Be aware that accommodation is thin on the ground in that southern quarter so advance planning might be wise in summer if you’re not taking day trips. HIGHLIGHTS Architectural Insight Romanesque transforms into Gothic in Tournai’s iconic cathedral ( p210 ) Carnival Capers Binge with the Gilles of Binche (p216) The mud that changed history The battle- field of Waterloo ( p216 HAINAUT & Waterloo Photo Finish The world-class photography BRABANT WALLON BRABANT WALLON Tournai museum (p222 ) near Charleroi Pipaix Villers-la-Ville Time Stopped Still The evocative Cistercian Mons abbey ruins at Villers-la-Ville ( p220) and Aulne Charleroi Binche ( p223 ) Aulne Dragon Slayers Mons’ Le Doudou (p214 ), one of Belgium’s most raucous, mesmerising traditional festivals Steam Blower Brasserie à Vapeur ( p212) comes to life one Saturday a month at Pipaix PROVINCES: HAINAUT (CAPITAL MONS), LANGUAGE: FRENCH BRABANT WALLON (CAPITAL NIVELLES) lonelyplanet.com HAINAUT & BRABANT WALLON •• Tournai 209 0 20 km HAINAUT & BRABANT WALLON 0 12 miles To Ghent (Gent, Gand) (36km) BRUSSELS To Leuven OOST-VLAANDEREN Ronse Brasserie Geraardsbergen VLAAMS - E411 Ellezelleoise (Renaix) (Grammont) BRABANT Flobecq Wavre N55 Halle (Hal) Moulin (Waver) du Cat Ellezelles Lessines Enghien Waterloo (Endingen) N48 Sauvage (Lesen) Walibi & Aqualibi Braine l'Alleud Ottignies To Lille Butte du Lion Louvain- Plancenoit la-Neuve (26km) A8 Hougoumont Vieux-Genappe Silly Cha (battle site) Tournai (Doornik) (Opzullik) N25 Ath (Aat) rleroi Nivelles Genappe Ronquières (Nijvel) Villers-la-Ville Leuze Soignies Abbaye de Villers Pipaix Aubechies -Bru (Zinnik) BRABANT-WALLON E42 N60 Tourpes Gembloux Belœil ss E19 Quatre Bras Corroy-le els (battle site) -Château HAINAUT Sombreffe N6 Le Roeulx Ca A54 nal Ligny Mazy Ascenseur 1 N5 Mielmont re La Louvière Onoz To Lille Scheldt Canal du Cent E19 Strépy-Thieu E42 Spy (41km) Mons (Bergen) Boat-lift To Liège (75km) E19 Havré Borinage Spiennes Charleroi To Namur Cuesmes Binche Airliner Cafe (15km) N90 Photography Museum N6 N55 re Quévy b Abbaye Le Bois m d'Aulne Valenciennes Sa Thuin du Cazier Ham-sur-Heure Cour-sur-Heure Erquelinnes Ragnies Berzée Maubeuge Jeumont Thy-le-Château Laneffe To Paris (183km) N5 Beaumont F R A N C E Aulnoye-Aymeries Philippeville To Dinant Botte du (14km) Hainaut CFV3V Rance Steam Brasserie Railway des Fagnes Fagnolle To Treignes Mariembourg Virelles che an Dourbes Eau Bl Nismes Macon Chimay Couvin Bourlers Noire Momignies u Grottes de Neptune Forges Ea Abbaye de Brûly-de-Pesche BRABANT WALLON Scourmont Auberge de Poteaupré HAINAUT & TOURNAI ous fortified bridge (Pont des Trous) from the pop 67,300 wall’s later expansion. In 1513 Tournai was Enjoyable Tournai (pronounced tour-nay, conquered by Henry VIII of England and the Doornik in Dutch) has Wallonia’s most town even sent a parliamentary representative memorable Grand Place and one of Belgium’s to London before being sold back to France finest cathedrals. Inhabited since ancient an- in 1519. Just two years later it was swallowed tiquity (visit Archeosite, p212 , to learn more) by the Hapsburg-Spanish empire. Tournai it grew to prominence as the Roman trad- found renewed wealth as a centre for tapestry- ing settlement of Tornacum, and was the making (in the 16th century) and porcelain original 5th-century capital of the Frankish manufacture (in the 18th century) but was Merovingian dynasty. Clovis, the most cel- devastated in 1940 by WWII fire-bombing. ebrated Merovingian king, was born here in While the cathedral largely survived, almost 465 and while he soon decamped to Paris, he all other historic buildings had to be pains- left Tournai as the region’s spiritual centre. takingly restored. Restoration was so com- Autonomous from France as of 1187, the city plete that the lovely Grand Place now looks retains two towers (St-Georges and Prends- somewhat more medieval that it had done Garde) from the first 1202 city wall and a curi- before the war..