If you live in the concrete jungle or any overly congested city, you might know what a luxury it is to experience clean air as a given. Out here in the Semois Valley in Belgium, as I drive through the forests from one village to another,
I want to run through the meadows and skip across streams just to celebrate the beauty of nature. But I know, it’s a bit kooky for someone my age to do this, so I fake strolling around the towns, like at Poupehan…
when in my head I’m really doing cartwheels down this amazing hillside:
But can you blame me? These places should only exist on postcards, yet here they are for all the world to enjoy:
In the above video you can sort of hear cows mooing in the distance; I think I actually get to meet one of them on my drive back:
Moooo.
Tags: Belgium, Poupehan, Semois Valley
To most of us Americans the word bouillon means broth, but today I’m taking you to Bouillon, a municipality in the Luxembourg province of Belgium.
It is a scenic place heavily invaded by German and some French tourists on this sunny day. Rows and rows of restaurants and cafés line the Semois River that cuts through town. The pedalos (pedal boats) bring back so many childhood memories for me…
but judging from the (very bad) sunburns I see on the other tourists’ faces, I opt out of the river ride and hike uphill instead to check out the Bouillon Castle:
As usual, it’s a steep walk (which always makes for an excuse for a cone of sorbet at the end of the hike though!) to the top:
You know the drill by now. Along the way there are the requisite churches…
and poetic, shaded corners…
leading to some wonderful vistas:
And sometimes, by the time I finally I reach the castle…
it feels almost anticlimactic to go inside…
because if I were a princess, I’d rather not be holed up inside a castle. Especially not when the good stuff is found out here:
Tags: Belgium, Bouillon, pedalo, Semois River
In the northwest Belgian province of Hainaut there is a town called Péruwelz
that sits right on the border with France…
and it is here that I’ve come specifically to see the Maison du Parc Naturel,
a modern house that has a tree-top walkway some 16 meters above ground:
Unfortunately, of all the days in the month that I am here, it is closed on this day. So I will have to return another day for the walk among the branches. For today, I am grounded in the forest around the house…
After an hour enjoying the cool weather under the shade of the tall trees, I walk back out to the town center anchored by the Basilique Notre-Dame de Bon-Secours :
Tomorrow we’ll hit two more towns in this region.
Tags: Basilique Notre-Dame de Bon-Secours, Belgium, Hainaut, Maison du Parc Naturel, Péruwelz
About half an hour by car from French-speaking Tournai is the Flemish or Dutch-speaking city of Kortrijk (or Courtrai in French), located in Northwest Belgium. I happen to love both the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia and the Dutch-speaking northern parts of Flanders even if there is strong tension among the two parts that divide the heart of this country.
I’ll start today’s tour with some background as it leads into the next blog entry about what’s consumed my time this past week. The first visit I made upon arriving in Europe some two weeks ago was to see the grandmother of my host family at the hospital…
Unfortunately I’m not a stranger to hospitals for a variety of odd maladies (and we’ll leave it at that 
), so hospitals feel somewhat familiar to me even if in foreign countries. Anyway, after a few hospital visits, she was released to her daughter’s home.
Now where was I about Kortrijk? It was known in the 1700s for being the center of flax, with its linen and damask industry leading to its economic boom. Historically it was also marked by the Battle of the Golden Spurs, an event in July 11, 1302 that took place at this spot,
during which the small Flemish army defeated the then powerful French cavalry to reclaim its land. The Kortrijk 1302 Museum cum Visitor Centre
is a good place to start any tour in this town that’s now both a mix of medieval history and modern design. The information center also provides one of the best information guides I’ve ever picked up around the world. And it’s free in several languages.
In Flemish Kortrijk you will find a smattering of old, beautiful churches
juxtaposed against modern, chic complexes like at the Buda area comprising of the Budascoop and Buda Tower:
So it’s entirely possible to be at the medieval Broel Towers one minute,
and run into some modern office building or shopping mall the next:
But what I will always remember about this city is this very spot, because just as I turn this corner to reach the entrance to the Baggaertshof and snap this photo,
we receive a phone call that the grandmother has just been rushed back to the hospital. We are told not to cut our tour short, so we continue to visit this beguinage, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which was established in 1638 to house destitute women. It is a small rectangular “subdivision” of 13 tiny houses swallowed by a verdant herb garden of some 200 varieties:
This is probably a fun town to visit over a leisurely weekend, but I am able to compress some of it in a short afternoon. Here are some parting shots of Kortrijk:
See you in the next town…
Tags: Baggaertshof, Battle of the Golden Spurs, Belgium, Broel Towers, Buda Scoop, Courtrai, Flanders, Kortrijk, Wallonia
Tournai is about 85km to the south of Brussels and one of the oldest cities in Belgium. As in the tradition of all places of cultural significance and economic booms, Tournai has survived the exchange of many hands from the Franks to the French to the English to the Austrians and now finally to the Belgians. You might say it has been a prime real estate king pawn in the chess game of politics for all of its existence since the third century.
But once you are in its historic center, what you mainly find is that the town, including a huge market place surrounded by historical buildings and cafes for people watching,
now rests in the shadow of a looming Romanesque-Gothic Notre Dame de Tournai cathedral,
whose ongoing renovation continues to be a massive undertaking to preserve its 12th century origins:
Here are some stats:
This cathedral
and the oldest belfry in Belgium
are both designated World Heritage Sites. Besides these main attractions, there is also a very pleasant walk along the canal’s embankment…
to the Pont des Trous…
where I find my favorite house with a completely white library behind those large windows on the second floor:
On this lovely cool day following a bit of rain, how exactly did I use some of the pieces from my suitcase?
My favorite accessory for touring a town I’ve never seen, however, is always a new flavor of sorbet .
Tags: Belgium, Notre Dame of Tournai, Pont des Trous, Tournai
