Biking from Namur's french countryside
Namur
This town is in the lower half of Belgium, which is mainly french. Luckily I have been taking french classes for a year, so the limitations of ordering your food in french was easy enough to manage. If not for that, one would need to do a lot of pointing and miming here to communicate. But that is part of the appeal of this cute little town.
On Saturdays the people of Namur go shopping in the street markets. After filling my backpack with bagels and croissants, we headed off on a 30km bike trip along the river to picturesque Dinant.
Our bikes in front of Dave Castle
Annevoie
Along the way we made a pitstop to see the gardens of the chateau in Annevoie.
Dinant
Back to Namur
We walked the streets at night to find a peaceful eatery away from the busy streets of ths film festival that happened to coincide with our visit.
Seeing as it was getting late, we tried our luck to see if a restaurant might have the odd table for two left for us. On a quiet street along the river was Le Temps des Cerises, a family run home-turned restaurant. I had my very first cassoulet, a stew of pork belly, sausage, beans and duck breast. This is real hearty home cooking and it was topped by a personal visit to our table from the chef to check if we enjoyed our meal. I will remember the whole experience forever and I doubt another cassoulet would ever compare.
Namur's citadel on the hill is pictured here, with our boat anchored by the canal, barely visible at night, but still there.
