Close enough. Different enough Your definitive guide to the South of Belgium Mirwart Les Plus Beaux Villages de Wallonie © WBT-Jean-PaulRemy The village of Frahan © WBT - JL Flemal In 2017 the Belgian Tourist Office – Brussels In our latest magazine we introduce you to a few & Wallonia becomes the Belgian Tourist Office - Walloons who helped shape the Belgium of today, Wallonia, focusing solely on the promotion of as well as some of its famous artists. Wallonia, in Southern Belgium. Wallonia also boasts some of the finest food in The mainly French-speaking region of Wallonia is Europe, and in 2017 the destination will be highlighting one of the most unspoilt areas of Belgium. With its the diversity of its unique gastronomy, wines, cheeses breath-taking landscapes, picturesque cities and and beers with a number of new routes and initiatives. towns, fascinating heritage, wonderful chateaux and gardens, colourful year-round festivals and carnivals, We hope you enjoy reading the latest version of first-rate spa centres and golf courses, exhilarating our magazine. Further copies can be obtained by family and outdoor activities, and easily accessible contacting us on 020 7531 0390 or emailing us at from the UK - by Eurostar, plane, and under 2 hours’ [email protected] , or from our website drive from Calais- it is the perfect destination for www.belgium-tourism.co.uk short breaks or long weekends away. Produced with the co-operation of the Belgian Tourist Office – Wallonia. Telephone: 020 7531 0390 Facsimile: 020 7531 0393 Email: [email protected] www.belgium-tourism.co.uk Belgium Belgium Wallonia Wallonia All rights reserved. No part of this guide may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any other means, electronic, mechanical, photographic, www.belgium-tourism.co.uk www.belgium-tourism.co.uk recording or otherwise without the prior written consent of the publisher. Commissioning editor & picture editor: Sophie Bouallègue Contributors: Sophie Bouallègue, John Brunton, William Cook, Nick Haslam, Rupert Parker and Adrian Tierney-Jones Photography: The images by Joseph Jeanmart used within this publication are true to the subjects in terms of colour and light, none of the images have been digitally enhanced. Graphic Design & Print Production: GreenApple Graphics · 01795 423277 · Revealed is printed on Essential Gloss paper which is an FSC certified paper. Although every effort is made to ensure that the editorial content is true and accurate at time of going to press the Belgian Tourist Office – Wallonia cannot be held responsible for any claims made within this publication. Please note that the views held in this publication are not necessarily those of the Belgian Tourist Office – Wallonia. Front cover image: Drinking at a terrasse in Tournai’s Grand Place © WBT - Denis Erroyaux Back cover image: Relaxing by the River Meuse in Dinant © WBT - JP Remy 3 Nothing as tasty as Belgian Fries © WBT-Jeanmart Belgian Owl Whisky Food for Thought © WBT - Emmanuel Mathez John Brunton comes up with ten fascinating foodie facts about the South of Belgium FRENCH FRIES ARE been produced in the same foundries in vineyards around their city walls. Lovers ACTUALLY BELGIAN FRIES France for over 80 years, the origin of of bubbly can even try the dry, sparkling Although Les Français will undoubtedly this idea was thought up by two Belgian Crémant de Wallonie. dispute this, there is a strong case to be industrialists, Armand Desaegher (a made that Belgian’s national dish, ‘les casting specialist) and Octave Aubecq BELGIUM BOASTS SOME frites’, was given the name ‘French Fries’ (an enamelling specialist), who chose to BRILLIANT CHEESES by American servicemen when they build their foundry across the border in Herve may sounds like someone’s name, arrived in Belgium at the end of the First Fresnoy-le-Grand simply because it was on but it is also what Belgium’s most pungent World War. Whatever the truth, you won’t a strategic crossroads for transporating the cheese is called. And the Herve, made in find better chips anywhere in the world, raw materials needed for the enamelling. the village of Herve from unpasteurized cooked to crispy perfection following the cow’s milk then aged in humid caves, BELGIUM PRODUCES ITS traditional recipe of double frying in beef is just the tip of Belgium’s surprising OWN WINE AND SPIRITS fat. Just don’t expect to find vinegar at a selection of more than 500 different Although everyone may associate Belgium Belgian chippy as everyone here dips their cheeses. Particularly in Wallonia, cheeses with beer, it can come as a big surprise frites into a creamy sauce. Traditionally this are linked with the Abbey’s that make that the country also has its own vineyards is mayonnaise, but now you’ll see a dozen beer, so in any ‘fromagerie’ you’ll see the producing wine and distilleries that make different bottles on display, ranging from distinctive cheeses like Abbaye de Chimay, a very respectable bottle of whisky. And curry ketchup, bèarnaise or cocktail to the Abbaye d’Orval, Avesnois à la Trappiste most French people would have a heart exotic samourai or andalouse. and Bouquet des Moines. attack to discover that Pommery, one of LE CREUSET WAS the great Champagne houses, is Belgian SPA MINERAL WATER COMES FROM THE INVENTED BY BELGIANS owned too. The Owl Distillery near Liège TOWN OF SPA IN BELGIUM Food-lovers the world over take pride is the brainchild of Etienne Bouillon, who Formula One enthusiasts will know the in their collection of cast-iron cooking studied whisky in Scotland, grew his own Walloon town of Spa as home to one of pots and pans that bear the renowned barley in Belgium, and now distils a range the most famous Grand Prix circuits. But Le Creuset label, one of the symbols of of single and pure malts. Grapes were its real claim to fame is giving the world French haute-cuisine. But although these grown to make wine in Belgium since the a generic term for healthy natural spring Spa Water water. People have been taking the iconic porcelain-enamelled cocottes have Middle Ages, with most towns boasting © WBT - Ricardo de la Riva 4 5 Shop selling the famous Ardennes ham © WBT - Bernard Boccara Endives at a Belgian market © WBT - Nick Haslam waters from the town’s hot springs here BELGIUM HAS SOME OF THE WORLD’S dining table, and in other countries around THE BEST WAFFLES COME FROM LIÈGE since the Middle Ages, and any destination STRANGEST-NAMED DISHES the world, this unique root is actually On any street in Belgium you can’t miss tiny stalls or hole-in-the-wall stores selling melt-in-the- that boasts a natural water source, from While London has its pubs and Paris its known as Belgian Endive. In summer it is mouth waffles smothered with powdered sugar, or with anything from whipped cream to hot Vichy in France to San Pellegrino in Italy, bistrots, Belgiums boast wonderful old the perfect raw ingredient to make a salad chocolate or honey. If there isn’t a queue outside you’ll still smell the irresistible aroma wafting now calls itself a ‘spa town’. But the bottled fashioned bars known as ‘estaminets’. fresh and crunchy, while in winter, slowly up from the old-fashioned iron griddle. Waffles have been around since the Middle Ages, and mineral water in the distinctive Spa bottle While the beers have some of the oddest braised in beer, the endive is the ideal are now enjoyed all over the world, but connoisseurs will tell you that the king of waffles is the that you can buy in UK supermarkets is names - imagine ordering a glass of accompaniment for meat, poultry one invented in the 18th century in the Walloon town of Liège, the only one to come from this uniquely ‘golden snail’, the Caracole Ambrée, or and game. a sweeter, richer variety, topped with crunchy, caramelized sugar. Southern Belgian watering-hole. a ‘piggy beer’, Bière Cochonne. Some of Just don’t think of how many calories there are in each one! BELGIUM IS FAMOUS FOR ITS SNAILS the traditional bar snacks are even more JAMBON D’ARDENNES IS AS DELICIOUS Coming essentially from the Walloon strange. It turns out that ‘oiseaux sans AS PARMA HAM OR JAMON SERRANO region around Namur, Belgium’s ‘petit-gris’ tête’, birds without a head, are actually Every country in Europe is particularly snails are a more subtle gourmet product stuffed veal paupiettes, while ‘langues proud of its very own smoked ham, be than the more well-known ‘escargots de de chat’, cat’s tongues, are a delicious it the ‘prosciutto’ of Italy from Parma or Bourgogne’. Most French restaurant-goers chocolate in the image of one of Belgium’s San Daniele, France’s rustic jambon from are not even aware that their plump snails favourite cartoon characters - Le Chat. the volcanic mountains of the Auvergne, oozing in garlic butter are most probably Bavaria’s smoky Black Forest variety, or the BELGIAN ENDIVES ARE imported from Albania or Greece, but at terrifically expensive Pata Negra variety of A NATIONAL DISH least if the menu here lists ‘petit-gris de Jamon Serrano. Well Belgians are equally Belgian cuisine features a colourful variety Namur’ you can be sure where they have proud of their own delicious ham, made in of healthy, seasonal vegetables, with most been raised. Rather than being served the wild forests of the Ardennes, following organic crops coming from farms in the in their shells, the petit-gris are used in an ancient tradition which sees the pork Walloon part of the country.