Top Things to do in The Ardennes
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10 Hidden Gems Things to do in The Ardennes That You Shouldn't Miss
A smorgasbord of flavors come from this lofty land in the hilly southeast of Belgium: game, wild boar, venison, smoked ham, the region's famous paté and world-renowned Trappist beers. Primarily located in Belgium, the Ardennes mountains also nudge into France and Luxembourg. Dense forests flank the steep hillsides, and market towns and villages perch on river banks. Spring and summer show this lush area at its best, but cross country skiing opportunities make a good case for winter visits.
Restaurants in The Ardennes
1. Reg Jans Battlefield Experience - Day Tours
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 124 reviews
Reviewed By Soetkinvc
Are you interested in the personal stories behind the heroes of the battle of the Bulge? Then Reg is your man. Not only did he personally meet and befriend a lot of veterans, he also guided the crew of band of brothers. Reg is one of the most passionate story tellers we've ever met. He knows all kinds of anecdotes about Bastogne and basically devoted his life to passing on these stories. This guy will take you on a tour that you'll never forget and would want your children and grandchildren to witness as well. We think the contribution of Reg to passing on this legacy in the vivid and profound way he does, is of an invaluable importance. Thanks again Reg!
2. BASTOGNE BARRACKS
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 845 reviews
Visit our exhibition hall displaying Second World War vehicles and equipment Bastogne Barracks, one of the WHI sites, is situated to the north east of town, in the direction of La Roche-en-Ardennes and presents in a 2,350 m2 exhibition hall as well as in outside display a large array of Second World War track and wheel vehicles, artillery pieces and various equipment, both from the Allies and the Axis Powers. The circuit is totally secure. March/April/May/October/November: weekends June/July/August/September: from Wednesday through Sunday December: weekend 11-12 + Spring break: from 15 till 19/2 – Easter holidays: from 5 till 18/4 – Fall break: from 1 till 7/11
Reviewed By Swintooh - High Wycombe, United Kingdom
Visited on a family holiday in August. You need to show up at the gate at given hour. This is no "anytime entry, wonder by yourself museum" but active military base, where the whole group needs to be escorted at all times. Great Bastogne siege display/reconstruction, very knowledgable tour guide (a sargeant in Belgian army), then the main attraction - huge garage with all the great tanks and armoured vehicles. My boys were so happy. A must do for any World of Tanks player. The price of entry is very low - 8 EUR per adult (card payment only), kids go free! Excellent!!!
3. Bulge Relics Museum
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 53 reviews
It's in a historic building situated in Joubiéval that the « Bulge Relics Museum » presents on several floors battlefield relics that were recovered from the battlefields of Vielsalm, Lierneux and at the Baraque de Fraiture crossroads. A didactical path through pictures, displays, vehicles and sceneries makes you relive those dark days of winter 1944 which saw US forces face mainly the elite troops of the SS panzerdivisions. Thousands of artifacts that, directly risen from that time, depict the everyday living of these men dragged by the storm of the battle. The museum will be opened from June up to September at weekends from 13 til 17 pm. It will also possible to visit it during the weeks as well as on special occasions but on appointment only. Schools : A special didactical file to be printed can be mailed in advance to teachers.
Reviewed By TsunamiHunter
The tour of the Bulge Relics Museum was the highlight of the group's visit to the area, which also included stops at local monuments and battlefield positions. The collection of uniforms, weapons, general supplies and artifacts is terrific and the condition of many items on display is excellent. The stories and information presented by the curator / guide conducting our tour was exceptionally interesting. If you are in the Ardennes, a visit to this hidden gem is definitely worth the time and entrance fee.
4. Felicien Rops Museum (Musee Felicien Rops)
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 251 reviews
Reviewed By periandro - Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
The building inside which there is the Museum is a nice house dating back to the seventeenth century situated in 12, rue Fumal to where it moved in the eighties of the twentieth century from the Hôtel de Gaiffer d’Hestroy. The Museum is located in the hub of Namur at a walking distance from the Cathedral. That can be clearly realized by casting a glance through the two looking boxes directed to Saint - Aubain Cathedral and St. Jean church, very interesting views by the way. The works by Rops displayed in that Museum represent a unique art conception encompassing divers types of slide arts. So, one can see there some lithographs which were published in the Uylenspiegel journal, such as the caricature of the French photographer Nadar and “La politique pour rire”. It’s amazing to realise how in the satirical drawings concerning the series to which the last mentioned lithographs belong Rops referred to the Belgian constitution and blended humour with parliamentary decisions. The “Uylenspiegel , journal des débats, artistiques et literaires” was a magazine founded by Rops himself and therefore the real starting point of his artistic career. His art production at that time wasn’t constricted to lithographs and the proof thereof is the oil painting “L’Entrée au bal”. It’s a striking picture in that Museum at the sight of which it’s easy to gather that Rops’s concerns didn’t fall within the academic teaching which enjoined geometric rigour and perfect identification of forms. Likewise the lithograph “La Médaille de Waterloo” is a striking work particularly as it depicts the army as a mass of absurd skeletons. This work is an example of Rops’s political commitments as it shows a dwarf senile Emperor supporting himself with a cane in the middle of a radiant Waterloo medal . “La Peine de Mort” is also a witness of the author’s political commitment as a contribution against death penalty. In his works within the scope of realism style the denouncement of the hypocrisy of certain people is outstanding. In them Rops painted what he saw. That’s why he was accused sometimes of making anticlerical works, as it was the case in connection with “Chez les Trappistes” and in “Un Enterrement en Pays Wallon”. Both litographs are eye catching as they denounce the perversity and the stupidity of the clergy respectively. The latter should be observed attentively in order to realise the solitude in which the little orphan in front of the grave finds himself as he doesn’t get a single gesture of consolation or tenderness from the other people attending the burial. The painting “Tête de Vieille Anversoise” is in realism style. In it the piercing and scrutinizing gaze of the elderly lady depicted in it is somewhat terrifying. Among Rops’s works somehow related to the French poet Charles Baudelaire exhibited in the Museum one could point out “La Mort qui danse”, “Les Épaves”, consisting in etching and dry-point, destined to be the frontispiece for Charles Baudelaire’s work “Les Épaves”, and “Satan semant l’ivraie”. The last one depicts a frightening scene in which the devil tramples on a freshly ploughed soil spreading away the rye grass that will destroy the farmers’ harvest. Rops was also very skilled in the technique of engraving what can be observed in two sketches exhibited in the Museum which he made to be used as a frontispiece for “Les Oeuvres Inutiles et Nuisibles” 1879 - 1880 consisting of two albums, the first one opening with a naked woman and the second album with the same drawing on the same woman dressed in her city dress. It’s amazing to watch these two drawings which somehow remind of the paintings of the Majas by Goya. Perhaps the most interesting sections of the Museum are the works having women as the main character. In the works included in one of those sections some prostitutes are portrayed as well as scenes in women’s bars, cabarets and brothels. The world of prostitution really fascinated the artist. That section consists of drawings, heliogravures prints, pastels and colour etchings. All the women represented in those works are beautiful as one can see in the following ones: “La Buveuse d’Absinthe”, “La Dèche”, “Le Gandin Ivre” and “Le Bouge à Matelots”. In another section Rops tried to reflect the fact that at the end of the nineteenth century women were often considered as manipulating. The charming character of all women depicted in those works is outstanding. Watching them one can be astounded at realising that women possess whatever is needed to procure for themselves all that they want from men. This can be clearly observed in Rops’s versions of “Dame au Pantin et à l’Éventail”, made each one of them using different techniques though the watercolour is present in all of them. In the fourth version, for instance, the lady carries a knife on her belt and, with a satisfied expression, holds up a puppet whose position calls up its submissive role. The picture “Pornocratés” ou “La Dame au cochon” is perhaps Rops’s most widely known work. It’s a stunning work depicting a lady dressed only in gloves, black stockings and a Gainsborough hat who walks proudly over the ancient arts that are sculpted and set into the marble. Three little cherubs try to seduce the woman, who continues its way guided by a pig. It’s a marvelous painting. Upon suggestion of Jules Noilly, Rops created more than a hundred sketches of lifestyles outlining the bourgeois hypocrisies of the time. In the Museum there are about twenty of them which are splendid artworks that can no doubt be admired by anyone having a bit of sensitiveness. One among the most interesting of them is perhaps “La Chanson de Chérubin” representing a scene in a boudoir saturated with red. That scene is about a vulgar bourgeois singing a serenade to a prostitute who has a vague look and is undressed. Another precious picture of that series is that called “La Toilette” showing a woman of doubtful reputation and morals dressing herself under the interested gaze of a dandy, lacing her corset, her eyes riveted on those of her lover. She reveals herself to be manipulating and dangerous. In the journeys that Rops made to evade himself from Paris and so discover other realities, he also continued carrying out his artistic activity. The most outstanding artworks displayed in the Museum in relation to those intervals are the oil on canvass paintings “La Plage de Heyst”, which is the impression of the atmosphere of a visit to the North Sea, and “Le Paysage Scandinave” in which he used a post-impressionist technique, as well as that called “Vue de Séville”. As far as the rest of the works to be admired in the Museum is concerned, that painting called “Avendre (Les Deux Amies)” is the most outstanding. It depicts two ladies, one of them consisting of a stunning nude comparable to those of Toulouse-Lautrec. Besides, on the day I visited the Museum, 14.01.2020, the temporary exhibition was also very interesting. It consisted of paintings borrowed from other Belgian museums and included even one by Ensor. As one can gather from the foregoing the Rops Museum is a unique art museum housing highly valuable works different from those which can be seen in most museums. Such works are both very peculiar and beautiful. In order to realize such qualities it’s therefore utterly recommendable to visit the Museum and watch attentively all the works there exhibited.
5. Parc de Furfooz
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 225 reviews
Near the doors of the Ardennes, along the Lesse, near Dinant, park and nature reserve of Furfooz invites you to discover through a nature walk
Reviewed By johanac34 - Prague, Czech Republic
We started the day with this nice tour around the hills. It is really clean, sign are clear and the cave are nice surprises. Strongly recommended with kids with the lamp of your mobile. Explore them. Nice bar in the middle of the way where you meet the kayakistes.
6. 101 Airborne Museum Le Mess - Bastogne
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 549 reviews
Reviewed By scottp372 - Ottawa, Canada
This 101st Airborne Museum is a tribute to the men of the American 101st Airborne Division who were surrounded and held off German forces who tried to take Bastogne. The museum holds many artifacts from the Battle of the Bulge, ranging from weapons, uniforms, and equipment, both American and German. There are glass-enclosed displays of life-sized wax figures of soldiers and civilians as well as audio recordings describing the battle, Not to be missed is the air raid shelter in the basement of the museum where one can go inside a room where there is an audio-visual account of the battle taking place where the traveler can get an account in how the battle was going on while sitting in the air-raid shelter. You can hear a dog barking, tanks rumbling, an airplane dropping a bomb shattering glass and rifle and machine- gun fire, all from the inside of the shelter wondering what it was like to have endured the sounds of the fighting. This museum is a gem and well worth the visit
7. Baugnez 44 Historical Centre
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 257 reviews
Reviewed By conrad57 - Ieper (Ypres), Belgium
This is a site ( massacre of US Army POWs at the Crossroads nearby ) of historical importance to show how the situation can have a decisive impact on individual soldiers. Visiting the memorial site and the museum is a must see for every interested person in the Battle of the Ardennes. Fantastic collection of historical correct uniforms and equipment and very wel displayed. The audio system works splendid and is even overwhelming in its information in so far it can become to much. The uniformed mannequins, the equipment, armory, information, rewards, badges,.... highly informative. A MUST SEE!!! Friendly staff, top location, up to date and a small cafetaria in annexe. Don't forget to visit also LA GLAIZE museum with the kings tiger tank ( Königstiger Panzer ). Remember the hardship these men went through in the frostbite of the winter 1944 into 1945. So many got maimed, prisoner of war or lost their live. Respect
8. Coteaux de la Citadelle
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 644 reviews
Reviewed By 933thierryf
Each year , in the beautiful city of Liege , there is this folkloric event, a circuit that take you into the coteaux, de Liege.it start "rue St leonard and take you thru Pierreuse to the citadelle, all the street are illuminated by thousands of candles, musical attraction are placed here and there where all kind of music are played, also there several shop and restaurant where you can a taste of different cuisine, several small 'bar' on the street offers you the typical alcohol liegeois that is called 'Pecket' these have a wide variety of flavor, museum are open and freed, also the St Barthelemy church is all illuminated, as expected this feast attract people from Holland, Germany and even France, the best point to see is the illumination of the Montagne of Bueren, with the 300 steps all decorated by candles set in a splendid mosaic like display
9. RAVeL Spa - Francorchamps - Stavelot
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 69 reviews
Reviewed By johngV5610JM - Pangbourne, United Kingdom
A really nice series of easy to ride old railway tracks in the picturesque Ardennes. These take you through the historic villages such as Stavelot and Francorchamps and of course right above the amazing Spa Grand Prix Circuit. Well worth taking your bike for an explore along these old routes. Spa town is great, do visit the 'thermes' at the top of the hill in Spa, a great way to relax.
10. Parc Forestier Recreatif Chlorophylle
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 180 reviews
Reviewed By cliog93 - The Hague, The Netherlands
A really lovely place to explore and be at one with nature. We learnt a lot about local species and plants and felt very relaxed as you’re able to do the route at your own place (leisurely it took us about 2hrs) Great for kids with lots of playground areas and ideal for picnics with stunning views. It was not busy at all when we went although the weather was lovely, which really made the visit all the more peaceful and enjoyable. Outdoor fun for all ages. Highly recommend!
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