You can hardly imagine it as you drive past these charming villages in the Brabant Pajootenland and Kouters. But on January 18 and 19, 1684, a veritable terror must have reigned in this region. The French troops had chosen as a technique of terror to burn the houses in order to reinforce their demand for the payment of taxes. Eugeen Van Poucke lists in his beautiful book "Events in our region during the wars of Louis XIV in the seventeenth century" the series of destructions caused by the French in the region. To discover what the terror of Louis XIV and his armies must have been like, we took this bike tour along 23 burned villages.

• Bekkerzeel: 13 houses
• Groot-Bijgaarden: 37 houses
• St. Ulriks Chapel: 9 houses
• Sint-Katharina-Lombeek: 15 houses
• Wambeek: 18 houses
• Bodegem-Saint-Martin: 24 houses
• Dilbeek: 5 houses
• Itterbeek: 15 houses
• Oudenaken : 23 houses
• Berchem-Saint-Laureins: 9 houses
• Vlezenbeek: 18 houses
• Sint-Pieters-Leeuw: 32 houses
• Elingen: 3 houses
• Gaasbeek: 16 houses
• Leerbeek: 12 houses
• Favourites: 12 houses
• Borchtlombeek: 15 houses
• Sint-Martens-Lennik: 61 houses
• Gooik: 14 houses

In 1689 (December 16) the following villages were added:

• Sint-Katharina-Lombeek
• Wambeek
• Strijtem
• Pamel