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Belgium 5: Beauraing to Bouillon

Posted on 5 April 202521 April 2025 by Rob Ainsley

Another sunny, easy, lovely day, trundling the quiet lanes and bike paths of southern Wallonia, and ending up at a place called Soup.

Nip out: Chilly morning view from outside Beauraing

It was straight-up freezing cold when I left my room in Beauraing at half seven this morning. I always wondered what chilblains were when my grandparents talked about them sixty years ago. Now I know.

Wine festival? Well in!

Despite the nip, it was good cycling on very quiet roads through even quieter farmland and villages. I found a boulangerie open for a coffee and pastry or two. That’s always one of the highlights of cycling in France and Belgium: all you have to do to find one is look out for the locals walking home with a baguette tucked under their arm, and locate the shop itself by the queue of other locals sticking out into the street.

Sounds like RaVEL: Flat car-free cycle path between Gedinne and Bièvre

Passing the villages of Wellin and Gedinne, which sounded like rallying cries of a 1980s college rugby team, I got to a decent RaVEL railtrail which ran alongside a small river for a few miles.

Headwinds not illustrated

Then it was a few miles of just slightly tedious headwinds and upsy-downsy countryside hills before the long descent to Bouillon, a lively and touristy village on one of the many picturesque bends of the sharply-valleyed Semois river.

L’État, Semois: Bouillon

I stayed at the HI place overlooking the centre, which must be one of the finest views from a hostel in all of Europe.

Souper: View over Bouillon from the hostel

The village’s name means ‘soup’, though I didn’t have any (to add to my series of food-in-the-place meals, such as stilton in Stilton, scones in Scone, etc).

Broth, or beer? Picnic by the river in Bouillon

I did however have a nice little picnic down by the river, gratefully in the shade and out of the hot sun. A small bottle or two of potent Belgian beer may have been involved too. Who needs soup on a hot day, anyway?

Miles today: 37
Miles since Essen: 169

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