Travel Guide Ellezelles

Although relatively untouristy, the Pays des Collines is a small, unspoilt piece of land where nature, fields, farms and craftsmen have joined forces against speculation. You'll still find bakers baking maton tarts over a wood fire, basket makers with their own bone works, ironmongers, tobacco merchants (real drying kilns, as in the Semois valley) and mills that actually grind flour. Wooden, stone or brick, on pivots, tower mills, water mills... There are countless of them, from Ellezelles to Tournai via Moulbaix or Thimougie.The center of the hill country, Ellezelles is a small rural commune that has become a Mecca for folk witchcraft. In 1972, Jacques Vandewattyne, a drawing teacher, animator and artist, and his pupils began excavating an old burial mound. They found nothing, but from this nothing, he created the legend of Les Collines. He decided that it was on this tumulus that witches came to dance. The idea came to him because, in 1610, a witchcraft trial in the nearby village of Flobecq had sent several women to the stake. Since then, folklore has developed around this theme, and today, witches are no longer the only ones evoked and invoked. Devils, werewolves, goblins, green goats, seven-headed beasts... are now an integral part of the Collines landscape. There's a lovely walk to do - the sentier de l'Étrange - starting from the Maison du Pays des Collines.