Belgian Ardennes

This past weekend I took the train from Brussels to Marbehan, which is a small town in the Belgian Ardennes. My uncle and Sylvie, who live in Paris, came for Brassigaume, which is a beer festival in Marbehan, and they rented a house and invited me to stay for the weekend. The Belgian Ardennes consist of several small towns that are all quite close to one another, and the house that my uncle and Sylvie had rented was in Rulles, which was about a 10 minute drive from Marbehan.

When I arrived on Saturday, we took a quick drive around the the area and passed through a few small towns. We made our way to Chassepierre, where we had a lunch reservation at La Vieille Ferme. The food at the restaurant was delicious - definitely the best meal I've had since arriving in Belgium. I had the chevreuil (which unfortunately means 'deer') with potatoes, apples and a gravy-like sauce on it. After lunch we took another drive around and visited the ruins of an old 12th century castle in Herbeumont. This castle was destroyed by the order of Louis XIV in 1658 and once was a route through France, Luxembourg and Germany. The rest of Saturday afternoon and evening was spent at the beer festival. My uncle is quite the beer connoisseur and since he came all the way from Paris for this beer festival, he was determined to taste as many beers as he could and decide if there were any he wanted to bring back to France with him. It was a fun evening! I learned sooo much about beer, tried many different kinds of beer and found one that was from an Italian brewery and tasted slightly of coffee.

On Sunday we began our day by driving out to Orval, which was another small town about 30 minutes away, to visit Orval Abbey. Orval Abbey was founded in 1070 and became Cistercian in 1132. It was destroyed during the French Revolution and was re-built in 1926. In 1931 a brewery was established in the abbey to help finance the construction of the new monastery. The abbey was huge and very beautiful, especially since we went there in the morning, just as the sun was coming up! We were able to see the ruins from the original abbey and we visited the underground museum.
*The legend of Orval is quite interesting - Countess Mathilda of Tuscany was seated beside a clear gushing spring and she accidentally dropped her wedding ring, which had been given to her by her deceased husband, into the water. In despair at having lost this keepsake from her husband, the countess prayed most fervently to the Virgin Mary. Soon, a trout came to the surface and returned the ring to her. Filled with wonder at this miracle, she cried: "Here is the golden ring I was looking for! Blessed be the valley which has returned it to me! From now on and forever I want it to be called "aurea vallis" (Orval - golden valley)." The emblem of Orval - the trout and the golden ring - has perpetuated the charming memory of this legend.

After having lunch at the Orval Abbey restaurant, we went for a walk around the outside of the abbey. We then headed back towards Marbehan and stopped off in Florenville for the Potato Festival. That's the great thing about Belgium - there's always some kind of festival going on now matter where you are! This weekend alone, there was a beer festival, a potato festival, and a tree festival! The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering around at the three different festivals and we ended up back at the beer festival for a few more hours of tasting and then buying beer!

I had a wonderful weekend in the Belgian Ardennes and a nice visit with my uncle and Sylvie!

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