In La Roche en Ardenne

Had to get up by 9.30 today so that I wouldn't miss the breakfast, which was really nice, see photo. I couldn't even eat it all. I mucked around for a while, washing etc and then into town. First off I visited the church. It is quite impressive from the outside but is actually a bit mediocre inside, no information and all of the stain glass is very modern.


Next I went up to the Chateau on the hill behind the church, it is very good. It is hard to imagine but the fort was just abandoned. It was in use to some extent up until the turn of the 20th century, but then they just topped using it. There was a town clock but it was abandoned too. Archealogical digs have been done since and uncovered a lot of the fort including bits and pieces from when it was older. All very interesting. All of the roofs where the first things to go and then the walls started to go. Near the end of the walk you are at the top and can look across the entire upper levels of the fort, it is actually quite large.


As I was about done there it started to rain, so you know what that means! Nope, not lunch. Time for the Battle of the Bulge museum. I knew the battle was in the Ardenne I just hadn't realised that La Roche was right in the middle of it. The museum is very good value, everything is in 4 languages, and lots of photo's. The town was liberated twice. The first time there was only one casualty, a young a French soldier. Then during the Battle of the Bulge the town was heavily bombed, half the buildings were destroyed and half were damaged, only 4 were completely undamaged. I guess that explains the modern coloured glass in the church.

After that I decided I needed to try one of the local specialities, an Ardenne Sausage. So I got one, only a Euro, and some rolls. It is quite nice, lots of Garlic of course, so I hope it doesn't repeat. It's not the rolled in the dirty moldy and sawdusty sort that Paul likes but quite nice. I ate the whole thing of course, no point keeping it :)


The of course the Tour was on so I watched that to its completion. I thought I should try having a proper dinner tonight, instead of bread rolls, to see if it improves my energy levels tomorrow. Just as I got to the main part of town it started pouring so I just went into the restaurant I was outside, it had pasta. In the end I got Lasagna, and I have to say, it was pretty good. It didn't look much, I didn't bother with a photo, it had this horrible looking orange sauce on it, but it was pretty tasty. We'll find out tomorrow!