Boëseghem-Isbergues

Boëseghem-Isbergues: on a journey in the old border area of County Flanders and Artois along the French River Lys

From the Franco-Flemish Boezegem (Boëseghem), a street village with a special church, we slowly descend southward through the wide Lys valley. We cross drainage canals on single-person bridges and quickly reach the (canalized) Lys. This old natural boundary between two Celtic tribes, later between the Counties of Flanders and Artois, has often been the border between the departments of Le Nord and Pas-de-Calais since the French Revolution (1789). We walk along it for a few kilometers with the S(treet)GR Tour de la Lys. At the village of Thiennes, we change banks (and departments) and continue southward through a beautiful and water-rich landscape until we reach the Canal de Neuffossé. On the other side lies Isbergues. In search of the center, which is not there, of this (industrial) town, we pass by a few historically interesting spots.

We cross the farmland again between the canal and the Lys, follow a stretch of SGR, and let ourselves be guided northward by the yellow signs of the Circuit de la Tête de Flandre towards the rolling landscape around the valley of the Daelebecque. We wind between immense clay pits, are captivated by expansive panoramas, and discover beautiful "slow roads".