My wife and I are spending 12 days in Belgium in May. The first 4 nites in Brugge with a day trip from there to Ghent, the last 4 nites in Brussels with a day trip from there to Antwerp. The middle 4 nites we will have a car and plan to stay in 2 different locations in the countryside. One of those places will be in the Namur area which will be our 'base' for exploring that area. We would like some suggestions what the second location area should be, and any particular towns to visit. Also any particular hotels/B&B's in either of those 'countryside' areas.

Ron, My favorite part of Belgium is the Ardennes and a good place to stay is Bouillon, a nice castle ruin there. A day trip to Luxembourg City is an easy and worthwhile drive. A nice drive from Bouillon is to go North, to Spa, Francorchamp and Malmedy. If you like F1, you will be driving on part of the Belgian GP course, just outside of Francorchamp.

A couple of years ago I did the same thing with a friend. We happened to drive by a beautiful manor house and decided to spend the night. It was so beautiful we wanted to stay a second night but it was a weekend and they were booked. Here's the website: <BR>http://www.horest.be/pages/fr/restos/7.htm <BR>I hope this is still their page as I came across it last year. The picture of the house on the webpage is the back which looks out onto the river. I remember sitting on the veranda breakfasting with limoges china feeling on top of the world. It's located near Namur. The rooms facing the front are on a street. If you decide to stay there you may want to request a river-facing room. My room was huge and had a king bed. The bathroom was also large and they provided bath crystals. We did not eat at the restaurant, but they had many plaques for their award-winning cuisine.

Well, I tried to access their page and could not, so here what I have. (It's not in English.) <BR>au Vachter <BR>chaussee de Namur <BR>5537 Anhee-Yvoir <BR>tel: 082/61.13.14 <BR>FAX: 082/61.28.58 <BR>Proprietaire/contact: M. Henrotte Alain <BR> <BR>As I remember, they did not speak much English and I did not speak any French. It was an interesting dialogue.

I did a web search and the address I posted was the number one result. So you might want to try another time.