One-week bike tour from Maubeuge to Tergnier

“Fifty-somethings in an Organised Gang” stay

From Maubeuge to Tergnier (148.5 km) through the Avesnois Thiérache & the Oise valley
80% of the route on greenways
“Fifty-somethings in an Organised Gang” stay, beginner level
Practical: stations at the start and finish on the same SNCF line (Paris-Maubeuge)

OT Sambre Avesnois

Day 1 | Maubeuge

Arrive by train in Maubeuge late morning. Visit the zoo and picnic around the magnificent Vauban ramparts. Get the bikes ready for the next day, then enjoy a hearty dinner among friends in the town centre, tasting local specialities: fricadelles, Boulettes d’Avesnes and maroilles.

Nord Tourisme - S. Dhote

Day 2 | Maubeuge > Liessies | 26 km

Early start on the Avesnois greenway, also called the “Emerald Trail”. Nature picnic beside the Solre at Choisies. Visit the glass museum in Sars-Poteries. In the evening, dinner under the lime trees on the terrace of the Le Carillon restaurant in Liessies. Overnight stay at La Forge de l’abbaye.

B. Gouhoury

Day 3 | Liessies > Hirson | 33 km

A very pleasant route between forest massifs, streams and industrial heritage with the Textile and Social Life Museum in Fourmies. On leaving Fourmies, eat on site or take away at the Les Etangs des Moines restaurant. Cross the Hirson forest before an Accueil Vélo overnight stay in the peace of the Domaine de Blangy (cottage or stage accommodation).

J.-P. Gilson

Day 4 | Hirson > Guise | 39 km

A colourful day for this long stage, with a patchwork of hedged farmland and pastures, and heritage stops in front of the typical fortified churches. For lunch, two options: a picnic at the Autreppes landing stage or at the Accueil Vélo restaurant l’Ermite in Saint-Algis (booking essential). At the end of the stage, dinner and overnight stay in the shadow of the fortress of Guise.

B. Teissedre

Day 5 | Guise > Moÿ-de-l’Aisne | 30.5 km

To start the day well, choose between a visit to the Familistère or the Guise fortress before setting off by bike. Picnic in the open air in the meanders of the Oise after Macquigny. Depending on your progress, you can stay overnight in B&Bs at Châtillon, Séry-les-Mézières, Mézières-sur-Oise or at La ferme d’Alice Accueil Vélo in Moÿ-de-l’Aisne.

B. Teissedre

Day 6 | Moÿ-de-l’Aisne > Tergnier | 20 km

A bucolic ride along the Sambre to Oise canal. Lunch in La Fère at the Rio Maior restaurant, a stone’s throw from the Jeanne d’Aboville museum. Depending on train times, a cooling break at the La Frette leisure park and a train home from Tergnier station.

Custom route

Télécharger le GPX

2 Maubeuge / Liessies

26 km

1 h 44 min

I begin / Family

You may find it hard to leave the intriguing maze formed by Vauban’s amazing ramparts at Maubeuge, but the appealing Avesnois area will make you want to continue your cycling adventure. The greenway, leaving Maubeuge, presents a mix of industrial vestiges, hedgerow-divided fields and forests. As there are many picnic corners along the way, it’s easy to pause to recharge your batteries, or then look in at the Musée du Verre, a glass museum at Sars-Poteries. Those interested might also visit the Musée de la Faïence et de la Poterie in Ferrière-la-Grande. Reaching Lissies, it’s time for a stopover… enjoying a dinner featuring tasty local Maroilles cheese, of course!

3 Liessies / Hirson

38 km

2 h 12 min

I begin / Family

Leaving Liessies, enjoy a peaceful, wooded start along a greenway. This acts as a good warm-up, as, after Anor, you have to tackle Hirson Forest, in the foothills of the Ardennes Range. The greenway takes you beside lakes with a hint of Canada to them and past racing streams worth photographing, or picnicking beside. This makes a charming, green, undulating valley stretch, a bit like a Switzerland of the North… but seasoned adult or teenage cyclists should be able to take it on without too much trouble! If intrigued by the soaring chimneys of the area’s old textile mills, consider a detour via Fourmies. The last stretch is on a greenway through forests to Hirson, where you reach the Oise Valley.

4 Hirson (Blangy) / Etréaupont

16 km

1 h 03 min

I begin / Family

After visiting La Rotonde and La Tour Florentine (major 1920s railway-related constructions), Europe’s largest stretch of bocage, or hedgerow-divided fields, provides a peace setting as you cycle through the Thiérache area, hawthorn hedges, apple orchards and babbling brooks marking the way. The riverside fields are sometimes flooded by the unruly Oise. Ohis Viaduct, with its giant arches stepping over the river, is the most striking feat of engineering on this surprising Axe Vert de la Thiérache.

5 Etréaupont / Guise

24 km

1 h 36 min

I begin / Family

A stage giving you a condensed summary of the Thiérache area’s delights, with its fortified churches, green meadows and unspoilt brick villages. All the way along, remarkably beautiful fortified churches alternate with stretches of pastureland. The end of the stage produces highlights in the form of Beaurain’s magnificent fortified church and the town of Guise, dominated by its impressive medieval keep and home to the progressive cooperative housing project, the 19th-century Familistère Godin.

6 Guise / Ribemont

25 km

1 h 34 min

I cycle often

Leaving Guise and its castle behind, the route cuts boldly via Macquigny to follow the meadow-lined banks of the Oise as far as Ribemont. For a less direct option, enjoy following the calm, beautiful meanders of the river, evoked by Robert Louis Stevenson in his travel book, An Inland Voyage. Passing steep slopes and charming brick villages, plus Origny sugar factory, the Scandibérique leads you to Ribemont, the village where Enlightenment philosopher Nicolas de Condorcet was born. Park your bike to visit the house where he came into world, now a museum.

7 Ribemont / Tergnier

26 km

1 h 44 min

I begin / Family

Be prepared to be surprised by the Oise Valley! Here, the route passes below seven limestone slopes, at times closer to the meandering river, at times closer to the Canal de la Sambre à l’Oise. All along, appreciate the all too often ignored local heritage of locks, bridge-canals, former mills and protected natural zones boasting abundant flora and fauna. Bloucard Cliff’s steep limestone sides look grandly down on the riverbed 25m below, marking the abrupt end of the agricultural plain extending southwest from Guise, and making quite an impression on cyclists along the route.