Bouillon, Beer, and The Burgundian Lifestyle

In the 14th century Burgundy was not a part of France, but its own huge empire stretching from eastern France, through parts of Germany, Switzerland, and all the way up to the North Sea.  Their court was based in Dijon, and was much grander than their French rivals both culturally and economically.  Today in Belgium, the term "Burgundian Lifestyle" means the enjoyment of life, good food and entertaining company.
Well let me tell you, once we found out that relaxing all afternoon in a brasserie, enjoying a beer, coffee, or snack- had a NAME, we have been ALL over it!  With the realization that we are moving back to the States in less than four months, we decided to practice our Burgundian lifestyle on a short weekend getaway in the Belgian countryside, the Ardennes.
Saturday morning (beautiful sunny day btw!) we got up and drove down to the town of Namur, about an hour south in Wallonia.  It fit the basic Belgian town formula: river, citadel, cobblestone, restaurants, shopping, Saturday market.  We walked around, had some lunch and bought Sofie her first pair of shoes!

Boullion castle in the background 

Then on to our destination: Bouillon.  The Ardennes are the forests, hills and valleys in south of Belgium.  There are many WWII battle sites (The Battle of the Bulge, Bastogne etc)  in these parts where Belgium, France and Luxembourg meet.  Actually, if we had made a right turn 50 meters from our hotel, we would have been in France!

Town of Boullion

Bouillon has a castle on a hill with great views overlooking the town.  The town is very French feeling, and set on the Semois river.  We found a Brasserie/Hotel right on the river that Napoleon had once stayed, and enjoyed a Burgundian afternoon with an awesome resident dog!

Orval is the local abbey of Boullion, hence the beer and cheese....not sure why its served with mustard and celery salt- but it worked!

 



   The next morning we set off for Orval Abbaye, which would be our 5th of the 7 Trappiste Abbayes in the world!  Chris might say that this was the real reason for our trip to the Ardennes :)  Anyways, this was definitely my new favorite Abbaye, they had a great tour, really interesting ruins of the original abbey from the 1000's and a nice cafe.  I really like their glass too- so even though we are rapidly running out of cabinet space in our tiny kitchen, two new souvenirs have been acquired!
So I realize that I haven't got a picture of it but the Orval emblem is a fish with a golden ring in its mouth.  The legend is that Matilda of Tuscany sat on the edge of the spring (which is the current supplier of water to the abbey) and dropped her golden wedding ring in accidentally.  When she prayed for the ring to be returned, a trout appeared on the surface with the ring in its mouth- so she declared the site sacred and funded the building of the monastery.

The ruins of the original cathedral

A tout alors!