Napoleon's Road

"Fransebaan" - Napoleon's Road

Yesterday, Saturday, we went for a walk through the Calm Forest. Well, actually it's "Chaamsce Bossen", but it sure is a calm place and it sounds like 'calm' because the Ch is pronounced like a hard k. This entire oak forest was planted as parkland with biking and hiking trails throughout the whole of it. There are also car paths and horse trails, but everyone seems to share it all without fuss.

We hiked for 14 kilometers through field and forest and even one man-made swamp! There is very little underbrush, so the forest seems clean and clear. The owners of the forest (nobody is quite sure who owns it) are now trying to plant small shrubs in order to develop some low cover. The swamps and marshlands are being created to attract different birds and waterfowl. It seems to be working, but the marshy, wet spots also attract mosquitoes! We had to make a detour to find a bug-free place to eat our lunch.

We got a bit turned around once and ended up in some farmer’s field, but nobody challenged us as we trooped through his back yard and out his front gate. Maybe he wasn’t home

Ad, Corry, Piet & Linda

For our lunch break during our hike, we stopped on a road that is now paved, but under the pavement is a wooden road that was built by Napoleon Bonaparte. The posts were sunk vertically into the sandy soil so that the troops could safely traverse the land. Ad also thinks that it was probably a good way to keep his troops busy as he was stalemated while here in Holland.