The Wallonie is the mainly French speaking part of Belgium. It covers 55% of Belgium's surface but with only a third of the population. With its iron and coal deposits it used to be the more prosperous part of Belgium, but after WWII it changed and the Flemish part overtook the Wallonie in wealth.
The Wallonie comprises of different areas, of which the Ardennes lies in the southeast of Belgium. The Ardennes continues into France (for those who forgot, our region is called Champagne-Ardennes, the Ardennes part north of the Champagne). The Ardennes is a beautiful region of forests and hills within the Ardennes mountain range, with its famous geological formations. The Ardennes was also the site of three major battles during WWI and WWII.
We booked a hotel in Bouillon, a town not far from the French-Belgium border and only about 1.5 hours from us. JL often spoke about Bouillon and how beautiful it is, so I was glad that we finally got the opportunity to go. And I was not disappointed! Except, the weather forecast turned out to be completely wrong. The first day was overcast and at once stage pouring down quite heavily. Fortunately the next day we had some sunshine (at times, with a surprise rain while kayaking).
Bouillon is famous for its castle, but I loved the town itself for its many flowers - on the bridges, in the windows, and the church bell playing Beethoven's Ode to Joy on the hour.
Duke Godfrey of Bouillon is one of the most famous former lords of Bouillon. He sold the château of Bouillon to the bishop of Liège (northeast of Belgium) in 1099 to finance the first crusade to Jerusalem, to free Jerusalem from Muslim forces. Even though the family had the option to buy the castle back once they have the money, they never could afford it. Godfrey became the first ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, but refused the title 'king' as he said that title belongs to God only.
The château of Bouillon is situated on a rock overlooking the Semois River, which forms a bend around the impressive site of the castle that offers a wonderful view over the town. The château was first mentioned in a letter by the archbishop of Reims in 988.
From 1795-1815 Bouillon belonged to France, whereafter it was transferred to the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, that existed from 1815-1830 comprising Belgium, Luxemburg and the Netherlands. In 1830 Belgium obtain its independence. However, William I of the Netherlands only recognised the Belgian state in 1839 at which stage the borders were finalised.
Above: the view from our room, on the church and the other side of the town,
as the river runs through it. You can see the church with its musical bells.
Below: the impressive castle
The flowers were really beautiful and provided colour to the grey day. Along the river there are boats that you can paddle, but it was far too cold and wet to try that.
As you can imagine, with a castle on the hill, it s quite steep to get there
Bouillon's medieval fête started the following day, so along the river below the castle, as well as in the town, people were pitching tents and preparing for the festival (to JL's relieve we had the kayaking on our programme, so were unable to attend...)
Above: the entrance
Below: the view on the town
They had a show with this guy doing different things with various birds of prey.
I would love to go back in autumn, I think these forests must be quite a picture
There were exhibitions of the crusades, the history and education inside some of the buildings in the castle - very interesting!
In addition to the exhibition on education and child labour, the torture room made me thankful for the modern age that we're living in!
Due to the busy weekend in the region, we went to Alle, a village not too far, on the first day to enquire about kayaking the next day. After they have convinced us that the weather should be fine and if not, we can still cancel on short notice, we've made our booking. I have never kayaked before, so was a bit nervous. It was really not hot summer weather, despite being mid August and the idea of falling into cold weather wasn't exciting at all! At the offices the river made a rapid and I was hoping we'll start down stream. One can choose the distance and JL decided the 12km shouldn't be too difficult. The owners drive you with the kayaks upstream where you get launched, to finish at the office. We were with Flemish people in the car, so I ended up chatting in Afrikaans with the lady. They were also doing the 12 km, as well as a group of French students.
At the launch, we got stuck on a rock straight away, but fortunately managed to move on. After the driest summer in about 25 years, the river's level was quite low and at times we had to push ourselves with the paddles to continue. At least it was comforting that I shouldn't get too wet in the shallow water! The sunny weather changed into some rain, fortunately the heavy rains only commenced when we had a late lunch afterwards!
It is beautiful along the river, very tranquil and we even passed some cattle grazing in the lush green grass. It was also around here that I've said to JL it would be so nice to come and kayak here in the summer. On which he reminded me 'but my love, it IS summer!'. After a wonderful hot April and May, with temp going into the 30's, we had a miserable cold, wet July and Aug. Hence, it was very easy to forget that we are in summer!!
From Alle we went to Rochehaut, another scenic village higher up, offering a view on our kayaking route and a small village, Frahan
Above: the same cattle we've passed while kayaking
Below: we were just in time to still get lunch at this restaurant, one of the most famous in Rochehaut. They have two restaurants, a hotel, a shop where we bought very good beer afterwards (with the name Rochehaut) and some farming operations. By then it was getting cold, pouring and we were happy that we have decided early in the morning to go kayaking in the morning rather than the afternoon.
And some sunshine just before we left.
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