La Roche-en-Ardenne Castle

On Saturday the 23 of May, after Robin and I went to the American Cemetery for the ceremony of the previous post, we gathered the children together, ignoring their grumbling that we were taking them to some other dumb place. We took them to a ruined castle at Roche en Ardenne. This Castle had quite a few intact sections. We enjoyed the awesome falconry show that they had there. Everyone did have a lot of fun. The kids grumble that we roust them from the house, but always have fun when we do it. Why the complaining?

The girls at the entrance to the castle

The boys up on a defensive wall, ready to defend the castle.

Ben and the kids down in the lower courtyard where the craftspeople worked.

The whole family

View from the castle across the church and river. A wonderful view of the valley. We noticed that the windows on this church were all new. (Not the pictorial stained glass we see in other churches of it's age)  It is likely that this town saw heavy fighting during WWII. It was recaptured by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge.

The view from across the valley up to the castle.

Franchimont Again

Last Saturday we took the kids to see the ruined castle at Franchimont.  They're the same ruins Ben and I went to in May.  Getting there was an adventure in itself.  There was some sort of race blocking the normal entrance, so we had to find a back way.  Part of the experience at the castle is going down into the old bunkers.

On our way out of the bunker.  Ben took a picture of the group above him:

Abe, BJ, and Sarah 

 He took another picture of the group below him:

Molly, Robin, and Kayanna

There are 5 of these bunkers.  As we tried to go down to the second one, we ran into the racers again.  Apparently they had opened the gate at the bottom, and the race course ran up through the bunker and stairs and through the castle!  There was also a wedding party happening in the old courtyard.

I think Sarah's favorite part was the gift store.

The castle from the parking lot

The kids were eating a snack in the car and didn't want to get a picture with the castle.

Kayanna

Ben & Robin

Castle Ruins at Palogne

Yesterday while Ben was getting ready for work, I looked at the weather forecast.  The chances of rain were very low, and after two days of rain, the kids and I were ready to get out of the house for a bit.  "I have to have the car today!" I said to Ben.  I jumped out of bed and got dressed quickly to drive him to work.

I came home and did some quick research to try to find something to do.  I found a website with lots of great ideas and picked one called Domaine de Palogne.

After lunch, I piled the kids into the car and we drove off to our latest exploration.  After lots of fun driving on backstreets, we arrived at our destination.  There was an awesome playground where the kids had a great time playing.

 After a long time, I finally convinced them to hike up to see the castle ruins.

The kids are in front of the entrance to the castle.

The kids at the front of the castle ruins

The view from the wall in the picture above

The weather was great!  We experienced one short episode of sprinkling while we were in the ruins, but it dried quickly.  The castle was built over natural caves, and some of them were apparently used as passages during the castle's strong days.  We went through a couple of them, but I didn't get any pictures.  I was too busy watching my feet and using my phone as a flashlight.  They did have lights, but they weren't very strong.

After we hiked back down, the kids played at the playground a lot longer until it was time to pick up Ben from work.

At the Domaine de Palogne, they also have a falconry show, kayaking, biking, and min-golf.  I'm pretty sure we'll be going back there again!