Belgium - merci beaucoup!

What a great 5 days in Belgium - this blog is as long as the holiday was good! To be more exact, we visited the (less known) French-speaking Wallonia, the southern half of Belgium very different to the Dutch-speaking northern half. With the hilly and scenic terrain of the Ardennes, excellent cuisine, and many interesting farmhouse breweries - it produced an excellent trip.

Day One

Started with me "working" from home and catching the Eurostar at midday (which is so much easier than flying) to Lille, which is right on the border with Belgium. We collected out "mini" car (there wasn't much to it) and headed across the border into the Hainaut region and directly to the first brewery stops (no mucking about here - I had a list as long as my arm I wanted to visit over the next five days).

First stop was the Geant brewery in Irchonwelz. I knew it would be closed (only open for visits in the summer), but it has been built within a ruin of an old castle and I wanted to check it out. Looked pretty cool. But I also wanted to get stuck into my first beer, so it was off down the road to the Dupont brewery, on the outskirts of the village of Tourpes. Dupont is a fairly well-established farmhouse brewery, but is still contained within the original old farm buildings. We arrived at the end of the day, so not much was going on, but I still managed to sneak a look at their impressive equipment. Literally across the road is the brewery tap, a very small rustic beer café, where we joined a couple of locals and the brewery workers at the end of their day. I was able to have their famous Saison Dupont on draught, a pretty good beer to start off the trip and it certainly didn't disappointed (I really liked the peppery finish). In fact, all the beers we tasted there were good, the Moinette Blonde probably being the pick.

Off then to the nearby town of Pipiax, a drive by of the Vapeur brewery (which was closed), which is supposed to be the only brewery in the world still run on steam power. On then to the elusive (a few laps of the town had to be made) Dubuisson brewery, who brew their Bush beers, which around most of the world are under the Scaldis label because nasty big-brewer Anheuser-Busch stopped them from using their the name Bush as it was too close to theirs ("boo", "hiss"). But thankfully that is as far as the comparison goes. They specialise in very strong beers, the main brew being the 12% Bush Ambrée, which was absolutely superb and one of the beers of the trip - complex and malty, the perfect desert. Unfortunately, their food wasn't up to the same standard (our only non-brilliant meal of the trip). But we did have a chance meeting with the manager (somehow he picked up from our French that we weren't local!), which turned out to be a little bonus. We chatted to him for a little while (for which half the time he thought we were American as apparently our "New Zealand" sounded like "Louisiana") and he even ended up buying us a beer. He continuely tried to apologise for his English, which you often get when you are travelling around, which is funny when our grasp of their own language (especially mine I must admit) is so rudimentary. Before we left we also purchased a 750ml bottle of the 13% Bush Prestige to takeaway (which I am really looking forward to), when he also gave us a couple of the branded glasses to drink it from - so it was a great visit.

A few fine Belgian beers under my belt already, we headed back into the city of Tournai and found our hotel for the night and went in search of a beer café recommended in my Belgium Good Beer Guide (otherwise known as the Bible). Passing several unappealing pubs along the river, with people inside drinking equally unappealing beer, we found our destination in a more quieter location further along the river. The Cave à Biére was a great little place set in an old cask store on the bank of the river with a beer list of about 60. Had a couple of excellent beers to finish the night and with cries from the owner asking us to come back again (I couldn't quite explain to him why we couldn't), we wandered back along the river to our hotel.







Day Two

Getting up in the morning, we went for a wander around to check Tournai out - unfortunately there isn't that much to see (despite its history of being the first French capital). This is quite typical of Belgium as a whole and is the consequence of it being somewhat flattened in both the first and second World Wars. However we still managed to stumble across a cute little café where we had good coffee and pain au chocolats the size of footballs.

Heading off in search of some more farmhouse breweries, we had no luck in finding the Abbaye des Rocs brewery around Montignies-sur-Roc (though fortunately I was able to find their beers in a store later on). So we proceeded on, driving through a clutch of small hamlets close to the French border. This time we did find the Blaugies brewery and their brewery tap Fourquets. Here we stopped for lunch (and some of the brewery produce of course) and had our first experience of the formidable Wallonian grill. To be a common theme of many of our visits to these remote breweries, we were the only ones there (though a local came in later), and we both ordered steak, though not quite sure what kind of cut we were ordering. That's when they fired up the charcoal grill that was in the middle of the restaurant and proceeded to bring out a couple of huge pieces of meat. But that wasn't all, after the steak was slowly cooked over the grill, it was finally accompanied by a massive bowl of chips, the biggest baked potato you will ever see (obviously local), salad, and some home-made baked bread. It was some feast, and the steak was beautiful, having a smoked taste from the grill. After doing our best (you know how much I like the challenge of a clean plate), we finally rolled ourselves out and back into the car. Our little car groaning under the strain, we set off in search of Chimay.

Having read that the actual abbey itself wasn't that inspiring, we bypassed that and went to the abbey's own beer café, the Auberge de Poteautpré. Having sampled all the Chimay beers many times before, I had one goal for this visit, to try the Chimay Doree, which is a lower strength version (4.8%) brewed for the monks and only available at this café. Suititabtly satisfied - it was quite good - off we went to start the most scenic route of our holiday, along the Semois valley.

Of course, the weather had other ideas, so instead of having stunning views of the valley, we had a lot of stunning views of clouds. But the skies cleared enough times to show us some impressive views of the river, which meanders through the hills and continuously loops back onto itself. Entering the wooded Ardennes region was also pleasant, with the onset of Autumn bringing out some brilliant colours in the trees.

Our final destination was towards the end of the valley to the town of Bouillon, where the town is situated in one of the loops of the river with its fortified castle perched on top of the hill situated within the loop. Our hotel was quite impressive and we decided to book in for the restaurant for dinner, but not after a wander around the town and a couple of beers in a beer café the other side of the river. The restaurant ended up being somewhat flasher than we were expecting and I must have been the only person in there wearing jeans and t-shirt. The menu was also pricey, but was well worth it. The pick of the dishes, believe it or not, was my pumpkin soup with ham and croutons. It was the best soup I have ever had and I had to put up my best defence to ward off Anna from stealing it all. The mains - I had rabbit on fresh tagliatelle and Anna had roasted pheasant - were also superb, and for the second time that day our chairs were sitting much further out from the table than when we arrived.














Day Three

The morning started with yet another great meal, the breakfast buffet at our hotel being superb - an endless supply of pain au chocolats is a dangerous thing! Being a sunny day, we doubled back a little along the river to check out some of the views we missed earlier, and then it was onwards to one of the highlights of the trip, the Orval Abbey. Though you are not allowed into the new Abbey, you can work around the ruins of the old one and the whole structure is quite impressive. We also visited the abbey's bar, the Ange Gardien, where once again you can try the beer brewed only for the monks - the 3.5% Petit Orval. I was very impressed with this - lucky monks - and also their cheese, which we also sampled along with a subsequent glass of the real thing. Orval is very different to the other Trappist beers, being more hoppy and bitter, and will never be in better condition only 200 metres from where they brew the stuff.

Continuing through the Ardennes, our next destination was a drive across the border into Luxembourg, but not before another stop for a tasting at another micro-brewery, and the Rulles Blode was well worth the stop. With Luxembourg so close, it seemed like a good idea for a visit. And the guide book certainly made it sound like it - calling it the most impressive capital in Europe. Considering the likes of Paris and Rome, this was a hefty claim - and one I have to say, it fell well short of it. Sure, geographically it is impressive, with a narrow valley running through the centre. However, apart from that, there is not much to inspire - not much more is required than a good walk around the city (which probably wasn't a bad thing after all our culinary delights). Though our trip did answer one thing for us, we had wondered why we hadn't seen many cars in our travels - the answer being that they were all driving around Luxembourg!

After escaping the only traffic we met on the whole trip, we headed back towards the safety of good beer and food in Belgium. We passed through the town of Bastogne, famous for the being the centre of the Battle of the Bulge in WW2, with an old American tank situated in the main square and lots of tacky touristy stuff obviously aimed at American visitors. We were staying in a small town at the beginning of the Ourthe valley. We had tried to book into a hotel we found a recommendation for, but it was full and said they could book us into their "sister" hotel. Well, if this place was its "sister", it is the illegitimate one you only acknowledge when you really have to.

Nevermind. Dumping our bags, we headed off in search of the Achouffe brewery for dinner. This is another farmhouse brewery that has done very well, as evident by the impressive brewery kit I checked out through the window. The restaurant out the back was a great little place and we enjoyed yet another meaty treat from the grill.

Back at the hotel, I was about to embark on one of my insomniac nights and spent the whole night doing a careful study of the ceiling of room 115.







Day Four

A welcome surprise in the morning, our 3-star hotel had a 5-star breakfast. So with plenty of coffee and pain au chocolats (again), I was ready to get back on our Belgian trail. First route was through the Ourthe valley, which would be more picturesque if it wasn't for the Belgians' incomprehensible penchant to fill any riverside flat with as many mobile holiday homes as they can. Why you would want to stay in these aluminium prefabs I have no idea, but obviously, from the number of them, the Belgians (and the French and Germans, as well, probably) flock to them.

Fortunately, our first destination was very picturesque, the small town of Durbuy (apparently the smallest town in the world until a few years ago). This place was very quaint with small cobble medieval streets and, despite obviously being a tourist spot, hadn't been spoiled because of it. It was also the location of the very-micro-brewery, Ferme au Chene, where I was able to try their elusive (and very good) Marckloff beer.

From there down to the strange village of Fantome and its even stranger farmhouse brewery. Once again it was just us in the eccentric little beer café, where we had the Saison. It was nearly ciderish at the front of the mouth, but more malty in the finish - an interesting beer for an interesting place.

The last beer stop for the day was the Saint Monon brewery outside the small village of Ambly. This was real farmhouse stuff - we were fortunate enough to bump into the farmer/brewer outside his little tasting room when we arrived so he could let us in. Dressed in overalls and smelling of farm-stuff, he was obviously on the job at the time. He got us a couple of bottles of his brew and left us to it and went off to do farm-stuff. He checked back on us every now and then, allowing me to order another bottle and also to serve another group which had turned up. This was just the type of thing I wanted to experience when I thought of doing this trip - the craft side of brewing in the home of beer.

From there we travelled up to the city of Namur to find accommodation for the one night we hadn't booked. And what a great place we found, an old tannery converted into a hotel that doesn't have one room priced the same - from a dorm-type room up to a penthouse for 230 euros a night. The place is a maze of niches and staircases and we got a great multi-levelled room for 80 euros. We also booked ourselves into their restaurant, which looked good.

There wasn't much to see in Namur except for the old citadel which you can't miss, though there was a beer café that was highly recommended in the Bible. The Chapitré is tucked in behind the back of a cathedral and is a real traditional Belgian beer café with a list of over 100 beers. The waiter was ever patient with me as I read the menu twice before making my selection and referencing the Bible to make sure I made the right selection - the Witkap Stimulo and the 10% Kapittel ABT were certainly that. After a couple of heady drinks, we returned to the hotel for dinner and were once again stunned. I know the French are suppose to be the kings of cooking, but I think the French Belgians are even better. Anna had a delicious scallop entrée that was (nearly) the equal of the pumpkin soup, and the roasted duck and venison mains were also superb. Anna also had a crème brulee she claims is the best she has ever had, I was keeping room for my own desert - a trip back to Chapitré for a night cap, the superb Sint Bernadis ABT 12°, served in a cognac-style glass.








Day Five

Our last day, and time to start the diet! Just a café breakfast, but still a very good coffee and pastry. Our Eurostar train was not due to leave Lille until 7.30pm so we still had the whole day left. The first part was spent driving down another picturesque river valley, this time the Meuse. It was then time to start our drive back across Belgium towards Lille, but with enough time to make once last brewery stop.

This was the very remote Ellezelloise farmhouse brewery, where we had to disturb the brewer/farmer from cleaning the brewing equipment to serve us. I had the excellent Hercule Stout out on the garden terrace where the fact that we were out in the middle of the farm was quite obvious. It was the perfect beer to finish the trip on.







So a great trip through a part of Belgium not usually visited. Great beer and fine food, I would recommend it to anyone.

For some more pics, click here.