Explore The Ardennes
The small and tranquil town of STAVELOT rambles up the hill from the River Amblève. It grew up around its abbey, which ran the area as an independent principality until the French revolutionary army ended its privileges at the end of the eighteenth century. The town was also the scene of fierce fighting during the Ardennes campaign of the last war, and some of the Nazis’ worst atrocities in Belgium were committed here.
These days it’s a pleasant old place, the pretty streets of its tiny centre flanked by a battery of half-timbered houses that mostly date from the eighteenth century. The best time to be here is for its renowned annual carnival, the Laetare, first celebrated here in 1502 and held on the third weekend before Easter, from Saturday to Monday evening; the main protagonists are the Blancs Moussis, figures of which you’ll see adorning various Stavelot houses. There are also festivals of theatre and music in July and August respectively, with performances in the abbey buildings.
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Spa-Francorchamps
Spa-Francorchamps
Just outside Francorchamps, the race circuit of Spa-Francorchamps is renowned as one of the most scenic and historic venues in the motorsports world. Formerly a 14km-long road circuit, races used to take in the whole of the surrounding area, to Malmédy and Stavelot and back, but now those towns serve as dormitories for the thousands who come here to enjoy the racing every year. The highlight by far is September’s Belgian Grand Prix, but the circuit is busy almost every day between March and November, hosting all kinds of events, some of which are free. Anyone can visit, and most of the time there’s free access to the paddock and pit lane, as well as the panoramic top-floor brasserie. It’s also possible to see more of the circuit – the media centre and race control room, for example – by way of the regular guided tours that are run on the first and third Tuesdays of the month at 2pm (t087 29 37 00, wwww.spa-francorchamps.be).
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The Deutschsprachige Gemeinschaft Belgiens
The Deutschsprachige Gemeinschaft Belgiens
To the east of Spa, the pleasant but unexceptional little town of Eupen is the capital of the German-speaking region of Belgium, or Deutschsprachige Gemeinschaft Belgiens, a pint-sized area pushed tight against the German border that’s home to around 75,000 people and enjoys the same federal status as the other two linguistic areas of the country. Once part of Prussia, the area was ceded to Belgium by the Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War I in 1919, but German remains the main language (and is still spoken somewhat in neighbouring Malmedy and other areas), and the area has its own tiny parliament and government. Eupen itself certainly has a distinctive Rhineland feel, but that aside there’s precious little reason to visit.
