Charleroi is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. The city is situated in the valley of the Sambre, in the south-west of Belgium, not far from border with France. By 1 January 2008, the total population of Charleroi was 201,593. The metropolitan area, including the outer commuter zone, covers an area of 1,462 square kilometres (564 sq mi) with a total population of 522,522 by 1 January 2008, ranking it as the 5th most populous in Belgium after Brussels, Antwerp, Liège, and Ghent. The inhabitants are called Carolorégiens or simply Carolos.
Thuin is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium.
Amfreville is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region of north-western France.
The Canal de la Sambre à l'Oise is a canal in northern France. It forms a connection between the canalised river Sambre at Landrecies and the Oise at La Fère. The canal is 71 kilometres (44 mi) long, and has 38 locks. The junction made at La Fère is with a branch of the Canal de Saint-Quentin, while the Canal latéral à l'Oise is joined 10.5 km further downstream at Chauny. It was used by the standard Freycinet-gauge péniches, 38.50 metres (126.3 ft) long, and 5.05 metres (16.6 ft) in beam, carrying up to 250 tonnes. The canal, also a popular waterway for boats heading south from the Netherlands and Belgium to the central French waterways, had to be closed in 2006 when two aqueducts were found to be in danger of failing. Funding has been put in place by the owner, Voies Navigables de France, and the local authorities, with support from the State. The canal was reopened in July 2021.
Aiseau is a village of Wallonia and a district of the municipality of Aiseau-Presles, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium.
The Sambre is a river in northern France and in Wallonia, Belgium. It is a left-bank tributary of the Meuse, which it joins in the Wallonian capital Namur.
The ASVi is a tramway museum in Thuin in Belgium, which specialises in the history of the Belgian narrow gauge Vicinal system. The museum includes an operating museum tram line which runs from Thuin to Lobbes.
The Hameau de la Reine is a rustic retreat in the park of the Château de Versailles built for Marie Antoinette in 1783 near the Petit Trianon in Yvelines, France. It served as a private meeting place for the queen and her closest friends and as a place of leisure. Designed by Richard Mique, the queen's favoured architect, with the help of the painter Hubert Robert, it contained a meadowland with a lake and various buildings in a rustic or vernacular style, inspired by Norman or Flemish design, situated around an irregular pond fed by a stream that turned a mill wheel. The building scheme included a farmhouse,, a dairy, a dovecote, a boudoir, a barn that burned down during the French Revolution, a mill and a tower in the form of a lighthouse. Each building is decorated with a garden, an orchard or a flower garden. The largest and most famous of these houses is the "Queen's House", connected to the Billiard house by a wooden gallery, at the center of the village. A working farm was close to the idyllic, fantasy-like setting of the Queen's Hamlet.
Aulne Abbey was a Cistercian monastery located between Thuin and Landelies on the river Sambre in the Bishopric of Liège, Belgium. It is now a Walloon Heritage Site.
The Lion's Mound is a large conical artificial hill in the municipality of Braine-l'Alleud, Walloon Brabant, Belgium. King William I of the Netherlands ordered its construction in 1820, and it was completed in 1826. It commemorates the location on the battlefield of Waterloo where a musket ball hit the shoulder of King William II of the Netherlands and knocked him from his horse during the battle. It is also a memorial of the Battle of Quatre Bras, which had been fought two days earlier, on 16 June 1815.
Barzy-en-Thiérache is a commune in the department of Aisne in the Hauts-de-France region of northern France.
Solre-sur-Sambre Castle is a water castle in Solre-sur-Sambre in the municipality of Erquelinnes, province of Hainaut, Wallonia, Belgium. It is one of the oldest fortified castles in Hainaut, and the property of the Princes de Merode.
The Belgian iron and steel producing company Ougrée-Marihaye was formed in 1835 by the merger of the iron and steel works in Ougrée in Liège Province, and the coal mines of Marihaye. The company merged with the Société anonyme John Cockerill in 1955 to form Cockerill-Ougrée.
The Battle of Erquelinnes or Battle of Péchant was part of the Flanders Campaign during the War of the First Coalition, and saw a Republican French army jointly led by Jacques Desjardin and Louis Charbonnier try to defend a bridgehead on the north bank of the Sambre River against a combined Habsburg Austrian and Dutch army led by Franz Wenzel, Graf von Kaunitz-Rietberg. The French crossed the Sambre on the 20th and held their positions for a few days. On the 24th Kaunitz launched an early-morning surprise attack that routed the French. The War of the First Coalition combat represented the second of five French attempts to gain a foothold on the north bank of the Sambre. Erquelinnes is a village in Belgium directly on the border with France. It is situated about 30 kilometres (19 mi) southwest of Charleroi.
The Battle of Grand-Reng or Battle of Rouvroi saw a Republican French army jointly commanded by Louis Charbonnier and Jacques Desjardin attempt to advance across the Sambre River against a combined Habsburg Austrian and Dutch army under Franz Wenzel, Graf von Kaunitz-Rietberg. After winning crossings over the Sambre at Thuin and Lobbes on the 10th and Merbes-le-Château on the 12th, the French were defeated on 13 May at Grand-Reng and forced to retreat. The War of the First Coalition engagement marked the first of five attempts by the French armies to establish themselves on the north bank of the Sambre. Grand-Reng is now part of the village of Erquelinnes, Belgium, lying close to the border with France. Rouveroy (Rouvroi) is situated 3.8 kilometres (2.4 mi) north. Grand-Reng is located about 33 kilometres (21 mi) southwest of Charleroi.
The Battle of Gosselies or Battle of Charleroi saw a Republican French army co-commanded by Jacques Desjardin and Louis Charbonnier try to cross the Sambre River against a joint Dutch and Habsburg Austrian army under William, Hereditary Prince of Orange. The French defeat in the battle marked the third of five attempts by their armies to win a foothold on the north bank of the Sambre during the War of the First Coalition. In 1794, Gosselies was a separate village but is now part of the Charleroi municipality, about 7 kilometres (4 mi) north of the city center. Charleroi is located about 60 kilometres (37 mi) south of Brussels.
Courbefy is a hamlet in the Bussière-Galant commune in the Haute-Vienne department of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in western France.
Maladrie is a hamlet of Wallonia in the municipality and district of Thuin, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium
Villeret is a hamlet of Wallonia in the district of Saint-Martin and the municipality of Jemeppe-sur-Sambre, located in the province of Namur), Belgium.
Rachel Sobry is a Belgian politician who serves in the Parliament of Wallonia for Mouvement Réformateur. She is currently the youngest elected member of parliament.
