Ardennes Road Trip

Recommended days	10
Budget	£
Difficulty	Easy

Ardennes Road Trip – Battle of the Bulge

We spent 11 days on an Ardennes road trip to experience the battlefields and museums of World War 1 and 2 as well as some of the castles in this area. It is an incredibly picturesque area and well looked after and it was a pleasure to drive around and see some of the sites we’d heard so much about and also discover some unexpected delights. The trip was planned to coincide with my Mum’s 70th and Step Dad’s 60th so we had to incorporate something for everyone.

Battle of the Bulge

A quick bit of history for you. By December 1944 the Allies had pushed the Germans out of France and the Low Countries and were on the borders of Germany itself.

Hitler gambled massively on a counter attack aimed at cutting the Allied armies in two and reaching the port of Antwerp so he could negotiate terms with them and focus on the Russian threat. The battle took place in atrocious winter conditions and, after initial German success, resulted in a massive defeat and waste of precious material for the Wehrmacht. There’s a good summary here.

Our Ardennes Road Trip

The holiday started well with Deb swinging the suitcase down from the overhead locker on the plane straight into my head. Once I had recovered consciousness she lovingly explained that it was All My Fault. We staggered through Luxembourg airport and picked up our VW Caravelle minibus for our trip. The weather was torrential rain which made driving hard and our first stop was Chateau de Reinhardstein.

Chateau de Reinhardstein

This was an interesting place to get to, luckily sat nav is great! The final road is very narrow and windy and eventually there are a couple of small car parks just off the road. From there you take a 5-10 minute walk down a country lane to reach the castle and we chose to do the guided tour.. As we had a bit of time we went into the cafe for some food to warm us up. The cafe was very rustic and obviously limited in what they could do but the soup and bread was lovely and while we were inside the rain stopped too.

We joined our tour with a Dutch couple and they spoke excellent English so the guide did the tour in English for us. The area is at the crossroads between German, French, Dutch and Walloon speaking areas so most people here seem to be multilingual. Unlike us Brits!

It was fascinating to learn the history of the castle and area as they changed hands between the various competing factions and families in the area. The castle was destroyed after being looted by the French in the Revolutionary Wars and then restored in the 1960’s by a Belgian professor. The interior was a mix of styles with armour and decoration from various periods.

We had a quick walk around the grounds but it was raining again by then so we didn’t get to the waterfall. I’m glad we did the guided tour, it really bought things to life and the guides knowledge was impressive. A fascinating visit and we would never have thought of it without TripAdvisor to tell us it existed!

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Baugnez 44 Historical Centre

From here we drove for about 40 minutes through windy roads in yet more rain to Baugnez 44 Historical Centre. This was an excellent little museum with a good audio guide. The exhibits were very good but there was a definite lack of descriptions in English, only partly compensated for by the audio guide.

The emphasis was very much on what we call the Malmedy massacre (although it actually took place about 100m from the museum) and associated local fighting with some good dioramas and original photos as well as the usual arms, equipment and vehicles. We intended to walk up the road to the memorial but the rain started hammering down again so we drove. After a quick photo dash we got back in the van to drive to the hotel. This was with some trepidation as I had actually booked it for the wrong day. Luckily the guy was excellent and we had a lovely meal there too.

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La Gleize Museum

After an incredibly healthy breakfast of chocolate croissants and chocolate cereal we headed to our first stop, La Gleize museum. The weather was better today and most of the flooding had ebbed away. The museum was easy to spot as there was a huge tank outside.

For some reason I thought this was a tank museum so I was expecting a mini Bovington. There was a tank – and it was a King Tiger so damned impressive – but that was it. The museum however was excellent and the owner very knowledgeable and enthusiastic with good English. There were English explanations throughout the museum and it was very detailed and interesting. There was a huge amount of gear recovered from the local area, in various states of decomposition! It was particularly fascinating to read about the last drop of the German paras – a sad end to a veteran unit.

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La Roche en Ardennes

We continued our trip along more very minor roads until we reached La Roche en Ardennes, a pretty little town in a valley. We eventually parked with excellent reversing instructions from Steve (the minibus didn’t even have a reversing camera! Unheard of!) and headed off for lunch. This continued the health theme with butter soaked mushrooms on butter soaked bread. It did give me plenty of energy for the climb up the hill to the castle though.

Mum demonstrated her grasp of European geography by greeting the ticket attendant in Spanish. The castle is a strange flint construction and obviously lots of work has gone into it to level the site from the craggy outcrop it is built on. There are plenty of information boards and the map you get at the entrance is excellent and includes a suggested route. There are very impressive views from the ramparts of the castle.

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We saw a park from the castle walls and went there rather than another Battle of the Bulge museum. As well as the water features we’d seen from the castle there were also lots of sculptures in the garden with information next to each. There was no litter or vandalism at all in the park and we spent a pleasant 40 minutes wandering around it after a quick diversion to Patisserie Bourivains for a delicious cake!

The window display was so tempting I just had to go inside. Although I didn’t share a language with the lady serving I did share a love of gorgeous cake so we were able to make ourselves understood enough to purchase some cake and coffee. We met up with Mum and Steve at the bus and had a drive on almost normal roads to Bastogne, a very evocative place and historical highlight of our Ardennes road trip.

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Bastogne

We dumped our stuff at the hotel and headed straight out for dinner at an American burger bar with a definite gallic twist and using all local ingredients. We also saw MacAuliffe square with the memorial and the damaged Sherman tank and as we were there, we called into an art deco cafe for a quick dessert of waffles and ice cream. Quite a busy couple of days but lots of driving and history covered. 6 more days to go.

Today was our driving free day, hooray! The weather was gorgeous so we walked from our hotel to the American memorial and the Bastogne War Museum. We passed lots of other memorials, to nurses killed in the fighting, Belgian soldiers and resistance fighters, Chasseurs Ardennais killed in 1940 etc. The walk took about 30 minutes and we didn’t see a single piece of litter or graffiti the entire way. We notice this so often when we are away so the only logical conclusion is that the problem with England is the English.

The American memorial is, naturally, imposing. There was a history of the campaign on pillars inside and then you could climb onto the roof to look at the terrain, each area having a map showing what you could see and which units were where in December 44. There was also a crypt with some modern art paintings but they were weird so we only spent a minute there. We walked to the museum past more modern art but this was graffiti style and some pieces were actually rather good. Once inside first stop was the cafe for a stupidly small coffee.

The museum itself was surprisingly good – after seeing so many I thought we’d skip through it but we actually spent nearly 3 hours there. Mostly because there was so damned much to read! We walked back to the hotel and then Mum and Steve went off looking for more museums in a masochistic frenzy whilst we chilled at the hotel. In the evening we went to a particularly uninspiring restaurant and had a very dull meal.

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Bouillon

Back to the joys of driving again! For a change from modern history we headed to Bouillon, home of the first King of Jerusalem, or the Crusader state of Jerusalem anyway. This was an amazingly large castle and completely dominated the pretty little town below. We parked in the town as we couldn’t see a road up to the castle and then walked up a load of steps and arrived in the car park. Still don’t know how the damned cars got there!

The castle was very brutal, dark, cold and a purely military building, there were no concessions to comfort at all. It was also a complete warren of rooms, towers, stairs and tunnels as it has been hollowed out of the rock for almost a thousand years. I can see why we didn’t get a map! There was a falconry display going on when we finally emerged into daylight so that was fun to watch although I didn’t understand a single word. The birds were impressive though. After lunch in a riverside cafe we headed to Sedan.

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Sedan

I thought the sat nav was being silly as it seemed to be directing us to a park but we eventually found our hotel, through one of the gates of the Sedan fortress and in an old barrack block. We were too early to check in but we just crossed the courtyard into the castle of Sedan.

Apparently the largest medieval fortification in Europe the tour route was good and took us through the main buildings and the across the ramparts. I didn’t realise Sedan was an independent duchy for so long and then it was of course taken over by the French and mellow Protestantism replaced with absolutist Catholicism. There was lots of good information in the castle and most importantly, a cafe that did waffles almost as good as Ghent!

We walked into Sedan for dinner and were amazed at how quiet it was – 7PM in the evening and pretty much deserted! Tomorrow we’re off to Verdun.

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Although we were in one of only two luxury hotels of the trip I actually had a really restless night so I got up early, had a soak in the bath and then wandered out to do some pics and gave Deb time to footle at leisure.

The town of Sedan was amazingly quiet and I had a nice wander and enjoyed blue skies and peace. I then headed back to the hotel for an inordinately expensive breakfast that meant I ate so much I could barely move as I wanted value for money!

Maginot Line: Villy La Ferte

From Sedan we drove along quiet country roads to the Maginot Line for at Villy La Ferte. We had the whole place to ourselves (because it was closed!) but it meant we could have a nice wander around between the blockhouses and enjoy the sunshine. Not very empathic I know!

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Douaumont

We then continued along quiet roads to the ossuary at Douaumont, a massive 1920’s building to hold the bones of the French dead and a military cemetary for those that could be identified. The graveyard was quite ridiculous, I think there were 130,000 bodies interred or buried there.
If you’re interested:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douaumont_Ossuary

We then visited the two nearby forts of Douaumont and De Vaux – both were captured by the Germans, both utterly devastated on the outside with damaged and destroyed turrets, shell pocked landscapes, smashed blockhouses but inside they were almost untouched. I can’t imagine being inside in peacetime yet alone under shelling and the corridors were damp and dark but they survived the bombardment. De Veux was captured after the Germans broke into the tunnels and fought for nearly a day to clear the defenders using flame throwers. Quite horrendous. It was quite strange walking around inside and then emerging into blue skies, birdsong and sunshine.

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Verdun

We then headed into the town of Verdun for our second luxury hotel and it didn’t disappoint. The hotel was a huge 18th century building on the riverbank and we had lovely views over the river and town. We dumped our stuff and then ate at a nice little Turkish place on the riverbank. Another very clean, very pretty and very empty town.

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I woke early again and after a quick shower, headed out into the town. I seemed to have the place almost to myself and wandered to the city gatehouse and then up to the victory monument and cathedral, barely seeing another soul. It was an incredibly pretty place, helped by the weather and lack of people. I met Mum and Steve for the by now obligatory pan au chocolate breakfast before letting them wander, meeting Deb for coffee and then heading back to the hotel.

Next stop was our final two sites of Verdun – Trench of the Bayonets (a memorial to a group of French soldiers buried by shellfire with just their bayonets showing above ground) and the Verdun War Memorial. This is actually a museum that gives a general history of WW1 plus a detailed history of the Verdun campaign. They also had a cafe there!

We could have easily spent a few days in Verdun as there was just so much to see but it was a case of being fair on Mum and Deb and also overload, the forts were pretty similar and one line of trenches looks much like another. It was interesting to see just how well cared for it was and how much pride the French had in the defence of the city and the memorials.
Next stop, Metz.

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Metz

The drive to Metz didn’t take long but it was the first real traffic we’d met all holiday and the sat nav, despite being female, had decided not to talk! We arrived at our bargain hotel to find the only parking spaces were in a nearby underground car park that had an entrance about 2cm higher and 6cm wider than the minibus so that was fun and then I had to reverse park inside too. Roll on autonomous vehicles!

We dumped our stuff and went straight off to explore. Deb was in charge for this city and she navigated us expertly through some pretty dodgy looking areas to our first stop, a small cloister garden. We were the only people there and it was a very pretty garden that was being restored. A lot of the original features had been preserved and the garden was split into a poison and a medicinal area.

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From here we meandered to Porte des Allemands, pretty much all that is left of the medieval defences of the city. Another pretty little place that was deserted, a definite plus. The old centre had some gorgeous buildings but also lots of blocks of stark looking flats that I guess were put up after the war to replace stuff destroyed in the fighting/bombing?

We arrived back at the hotel to find Mum and Steve had got completely lost and were miles away! They eventually made it back and then we had a nice dinner and I even indulged in a beer!

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I woke at 6 as I wasn’t used to the noise of a city so I had an hour to do my own thing before Deb emerged into the land of the vaguely living. After a filling breakfast we decided to head to the cathedral. Steve wanted to do his own stuff so Mum came with us and we walked along the canals, admiring the houses and the flower planters everywhere.

From the river the cathedral looked typically gothic but nothing too special but when we actually reached the square it was very different! An incredibly ornate building with apparently the most medieval stained glass in Europe. This light painted the interior in a riot of liquid colours and made the interior even more impressive than the outside. We also toured the crypt and treasury, with the weird collection of reliquaries that these places have.

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Once outside we found somewhere to sit and have a coffee and the bloke very kindly bought us 3 pan au chocolates to go with them. Tragically Deb couldn’t eat hers so I took one for the team and ate two. We then headed back to the hotel to pack up and go to our next stop, the Maginot line fort at Hackenberg.

Maginot Line: Hackenberg

Just before we arrived there was an M10 tank destroyer at the junction so we stopped to take a picture and 3 lorries headed up the road to the fort. We continued on our way to find the lorries blocking the road as they were replacing a telegraph pole so I had to reverse back to the main road and then find another route that only involved going through two no entry signs to reach the car park! On the plus side it meant the place was deserted so I had a little napette for an hour.

This fort was the largest of the Maginot Line and didn’t actually surrender to the Germans until ordered to by the Paris government after the armistice was signed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouvrage_Hackenberg
We had a guided tour which lasted a couple of hours and was fascinating.

The place was still almost entirely intact inside, despite bombing and shelling and we took a ride on the underground railway to get to one of the bastions. This one had been badly damaged by the Americans in 1944 but had done pretty well considering they were in effect attacking from behind. We then left the tunnels into the lovely warm sunshine and headed to our final stop, Luxembourg.

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Luxembourg

Our introduction to our hotel in Luxembourg was not good – no pan au chocolate for breakfast! After this traumatic start we took a taxi the short distance into town and stopped at the Modern Art Museum. Don’t worry though, this was only for convenience, we didn’t head in as that would have spoiled the mood!

We walked around the grounds to to the fort of Thungen and left Mum and Steve there so they could visit the museum. Deb and I walked around the Vauban ramparts before descending the many steps into the town.

Luxembourg is an extremely pretty town but it is hard work climbing up and down all the hills! There are no ‘must see’ places but lots of lovely views and it’s small enough that you can see all the highlights in a day trip.

We walked around the park below the ramparts then climbed the hill that overlooked the casements before climbing down again, past the allotment terraces and along the very scenic riverbank. The water was incredibly still which was great for reflections!

We then climbed up again (sensing a pattern here?!) and headed into the town itself. Although it was a Saturday most of the streets were empty, apart from a small huddle in the centre which were packed.

The actual town is pretty dull, could be anywhere in Western Europe, but we found a place for some very tasty fro-yo for me and then continued meandering. Some more viewpoints and then lunch before risking public transport and taking the bus back to the hotel. This worked out pretty well because we couldn’t work out how to pay for it so got it free and the bus stop was near a Starbucks so I actually had my first proper sized coffee of the week!

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Back at the hotel we packed and then had dinner ready to leave the next morning. A very interesting trip covering an extremely pretty part of Europe. It was fascinating to see the military side of things I’d only read about but also to see how pretty and clean the French and Belgian villages were but also how quiet. It was frustratingly difficult to get healthy food when eating out but we walked 85km on our explorations, drove about 700 and I took almost 4000 photos!

2019