We were happy to leave Antwerp and head southwest to the Wallonia region of Belgium. Wallonia is the French speaking area of Belgium and it couldn’t be more different from the Dutch area we were leaving. It is known for its medieval towns, Renaissance era architecture and, of course, more beer! It contains the Ardennes which is an area of forested mountains, rough terrain, unique rolling hills and ridges, rivers and caves.
I was so excited to see this area! I was ready for a radical change from the large city of Antwerp. I was ready for a quaint, gorgeous, sleepy little town with stunning scenery and friendly people.
We arrived on the train/bus to the stunning city of Dinant. There are no words to describe the look of this city as you arrive. But I’ll try. It is a medieval city, of course, and it sits on the banks of the Meuse river. Behind the river is an enormous cliff with a citadel on top and a gothic church in front. The view is incredible!
Sometimes while traveling you get lost. Some times are worse than others. This wasn’t too bad! We just needed to drop our luggage off at our hotel before exploring the city. Sounds pretty easy right? Got a little wet, got a little lost but finally made it to La Merveilleuse – our home for two nights. More on the hotel later….
We headed back out into the rain to find a place to eat – and drink! We crossed the famous Charles de Gaulle bridge to get to the center of Dinant. Yes this is the same man that the airport in Paris is named for. Charles de Gaulle is famous here because he fought for the French in Dinant in World War I. Also, the bridge is unique because it is lined with 28 colorful resin saxophones. Dinant is the home of Adolf Sax – the inventor of the Jazz instrument. The saxophones were erected on the bridge in 2010 in a tribute to the countries of the European Union. Each sax represents a country and each represents its country in a unique way.
Let’s just say, they’re awesome! So colorful and fun and serve as such a different entrance to the medieval city center!
Pizza – and beer – was our lunch of choice as it was Sunday and a sleepy town in the off season and there weren’t a ton of choices. Something to note… unlike other areas we’d been in Belgium, you cannot just assume that people speak English. To me this is great. More difficult, yes but also more authentic. You get by with a lot of smiling and pointing. As always, a smile goes a long, long way!
The town’s citadel was just 50 yards away – small town – so we hiked up the 408 stairs to get there. My heart and head were happy as the views of the town were phenomenal.
We wanted to learn about Dinant’s role in World War I as it didn’t make sense why anyone would want to attack this place. It wasn’t an important port, there weren’t a lot of people, it wasn’t a strategic location… so why? Apparently the town was attacked during the German invasion of Belgium. Another more brutal attack, however, came after that because the Germans believed the town was full of francs-tireurs (free shooters – terrorists to the Germans). It was never proved to be true… but 674 Belgian civilians were massacred as a result. Fascinating history and a very cool tour!
Time to head to our hotel. Again I was so excited about the place. Please, please don’t let me be disappointed again! This hotel was unique. It was voted as one of the most trendy hotels in Dinant but in a different way. It’s name, La Merveilleuse, comes from the name of the gigantic underground caves near to the hotel. At the end of the 19th century, the Dominican nuns built the convent which was now serving as our hotel.
It was built in a neo-Gothic style and served for 100 years as a convent. In 2008 the convent was transformed into the hotel that exists today. Per the website, “all interventions were done with the utmost respect towards history and the ‘soul of the place'”.
Not only is it a hotel but it is also a spa and contains one of the must-sees in Dinant, the Maison Leffe – a museum of Leffe beer. Leffe is one of the local beers in Dinant – it is literally everywhere in there city. In the hotel/museum you can get a brief history of the convent and beer and then go try one.
The hotel was super cool! Sparse with a large dining room right in the middle. When we arrived there were tons of people there – lots of families – enjoying food and beer on a rainy Sunday. It was nice to see. And I was so happy to see our room – warm with modern amenities in an historic setting. Basically a little bit of old and new that was so welcoming! Yes! My expectations were met!
And as part of the room John and I got a free Maison Leffe tour and beer tasting. We also got vouchers for 50 euros each to use at the local casino… more on that later😊
First things first… beer! We headed to the museum, embarrassingly not paying attention to anything, and made our way to the tasting room. All Leffe beers of course. I had the Ruby – flavored with red fruits and brewed with elderberry juice. Oh it was good!!!! My favorite Belgian beer! John had Winterbier – a typical Belgian red-brown beer. Mine was much yummier!
We had to take advantage of the casino vouchers the hotel gave us right? That’s just free play money. And we wanted to check out the casino that was on the outskirts of town anyway.
After a ton of security, we were let into the tiny casino with no windows. Is that a rule of casinos? You can’t have windows? So no one knows how much time was wasted there?! Anyway, gambling has never been my thing – or Johns’s – but when in Rome right? John wanted to play craps but how can you really play craps with no other players? So we headed to the slots. Slot machines have gotten much more complicated since I last played them. There isn’t even a lever to pull anymore. That was really the only part that was fun. So we sat and hit buttons for a while and my husband made 75+ euros! A hidden talent for slot machines? He said he kept hitting “max bet”. Whatever he did it worked! And it would pay for our French dinner and wine! Ooh we felt like we’d beaten the system!
The choices were limited on a Sunday night but we found Le Wiertz – a French family restaurant that seemed to be popular judging from the number of people there. The menu and the waiter were French but we got by and I got to finally try the traditional Belgian mussels. It was yet another to do on my list. Well this was the biggest bowl of mussels I’d ever seen. And they were very good. I just think I ordered wrong. I only got them in white wine sauce because I didn’t know what anything else was! John got a lovely veal stew and we had some decent wine as we were beered out by then.
Dinant, you totally made up for Antwerp!