Brakel and Vloesberg, linguistic border neighbours

Everbeek, which is part of Brakel in the Flemish Ardennes, is one of the last quiet regions in the province. When the language border was established in 1962, the then municipality with the residential areas Everbeek-Boven and Everbeek-Beneden was transferred from Hainaut to East Flanders. The church square (with parking) in Everbeek-Boven (V) is your starting point. Keep Sint-Jozefskerk and hostel Het Meiklokje on the left and follow Muiterij, direction EverbeekBeneden (so not Mutiny 11). Turn right onto the first side street, Nieuwpoort. You go down to the White Chapel and opposite you turn right into the Oolstraat. Past a restored Brabant farmhouse with a beautiful gatehouse, you follow the Oolstraat 500 m, until you reach house No. 13. In the bend you leave the asphalt, directly into the road of the field next to the house. It heads straight for a grove between two fields, although it is sometimes ploughed. At the grove, you return to the asphalt and walk to the left. The narrow ribbon winds gracefully through the valley. Past the grove and house n°4, choose the pebble branch on the right, which goes down further. Idyllic place, with first a fairytale house on the edge of the forest, then a bridge over Terkleppebeek 1. It is part of the Everbeekbossen Nature Reserve, managed by Natuurpunt. Exit the wooded valley to the chapel. There on the left. This winding road offers you pristine and vast landscapes. At the top of the five jumps sharply to the right. If the bridge has not yet been repaired, follow the stream 200m to the left through the forest, until you can cross the stream at a prairie bridge. Here you come to the asphalt, the Kremerstraat, which you follow by climbing to the right to the top of the five jumps. Here straight in the direction of Hemelrijk. You are now looking for miles above the Pays des Collines, the mountainous country beyond the language border. You first walk along a magnificent Calvary 2 against a farm front, then walk along the Retro bakery farm. Past house No. 10, just on the border of Brakel and Vloesberg (Flobecq), you dive directly into the valley. Flobecq is a Walloon municipality with facilities for Dutch speakers. A long field road, sometimes a little soggy here and there, takes you through beautiful agricultural slopes to the wood of Louvière or Livierenbos on the horizon, with the military mast of Flobecq. After a long ascent, you reach this forest on a concrete road. Cross, diagonally to the left, to take the path that follows the edge of the forest just in front of house No. 54 (with the ruins of the chapel behind), straight until you reach the huge transmission tower 3. Stay along the fence of the estate, until the picnic area in the forest. There you turn right, with red and white GR signs and T6 signs. A 2km straight road now guides you through the most beautiful forest in the region, the Livierenbos, a beech forest famous for its colorful carpet of spring flowers such as hyacinth, golden buttercup, hanging sedge, etc. At the end of the alley, past the bareel, go down to the left, to a stream, immediately again the provincial border. Do not cross them, but turn right to follow the stream for a long time. On your right a rural park landscape with farm, orchard, meadows, pond, ducks, cows ... Beyond the bend, the path suddenly sinks into the forest and crosses the stream. This is followed by a steep climb, still on the GR path. At the edge of the forest on the right and at the first houses on the right follow the Kroonstraat. Directly in front of number 16, you walk on the left in a narrow path between meadow and garden, marked by a red square. At the end of it, turn right. Keep left at the fork. Red Square takes you down a narrow street, which runs through you. On the other side, the path continues, but with a blue rectangle. Along the pastoral lands on the left, the church road leads to St. Joseph's Church.