(De Lijn contractor) Emiel Lenoir 302110 (KEH 538) at Le Bizet - 25 Mar 1996

Monday 25 March 1996 – The towns and villages along the border of Belgium and France fascinate me. It is possible to have one part of a village in one country and the other part of the village in another country. It is even possible to have one side of a street in one country and the opposite side of the street in another country.

In this view the bus was on the Belgian side of Chemins des Rabecques in Le Bizet - the French side of the street is off camera on the left. The bus is 302110 (KEH 538) in the fleet of De Lijn contractor Emiel Lenoir and is a MAN powered Van Hool A120 integral new in March 1991 which was about to work the 1150 service 742 back to Ieper.

A cluster of boundary signs can be seen on the right. The European Union international boundary sign for Belgium has two province boundary signs for Hainault (in French), Henegouwen (in Flemish) beneath it. The white sign is for the town of Le Bizet.

In 1991 Belgium’s national bus and tramway company (known as Nationale Maatschappij van Buurtspoorwegen (NMVB) in Flemish and Société nationale des chemins de fer vicinaux (SNCV) in French) was divided to create De Lijn in the northern part of the country (Flanders) and TEC in the south (Wallonia).
A slight anomaly with regard to service 742, which covers a total distance of about 18 kilometres from Ieper to Le Bizet, is that about 5.7 kilometres operates in to Wallonia. The trip takes 30 minutes.