Our properties in the Condroz

The subsoil of the Condroz consists largely of limestone and sandstone, and you see it reflected in every village. The houses and farms are built of grey to blue bluestone, often with thick walls, small windows and a slate roof. This sturdy architecture gave the region its recognisable, understated character, far removed from the half-timbered houses you find elsewhere in Wallonia.

A distinctive feature of the Condroz is the fermes-châteaux, farms built like small fortresses, with a gatehouse, an inner courtyard and sometimes a turret. They recall a time when a farm had to be able to defend itself. Many have now been beautifully restored, and some rent out part of the building as a holiday home, so that you literally sleep in the region's heritage.

The real castles are the crowning touch. Vêves is the best known, but the region counts dozens of them, from modest country castles to large estates. A castle route by bike or car takes you past the finest in a few days, each time in a different village and a different setting. Along the way you sample the regional cuisine: the Condroz is known for its farm produce, its cheese and its game dishes during the hunting season.

The relief of the Condroz follows a fixed pattern that makes the region unique. The hard sandstone ridges, the tiges, run parallel to one another, separated by wider limestone valleys, the chavées. As a result, you are constantly driving or cycling up and down here, with a wide view over fields, meadows and distant woodland edges on every ridge. It is a country of open skies and long horizons, very different from the enclosed forest of the Ardennes.

This openness makes the Condroz a calm, light-filled region. The fields change colour with the seasons, from the fresh green of spring to the golden stubble of late summer. Between the fields lie copses, hedgerows and stream valleys that shelter deer, hares and many birds. For anyone wanting to escape the crowds of the touristy Ardennes without giving up nature, this is an ideal destination.

The boundary between the Condroz and the surrounding regions is subtle but tangible. To the south, the plateau gives way to the lower, greener Famenne, with its caves and limestone grasslands. To the north, the land drops towards the Meuse valley at Dinant and Namur. The Condroz thus sits right at the crossroads of Wallonia, which makes the region a handy base for anyone wanting to see more than one kind of scenery.

The Condroz is pleasant all year round, but spring and autumn are ideal for cycling and walking, when the countryside looks its best and it is quiet. Summer brings long, light evenings and village festivals, while autumn puts the woods and game cooking in the spotlight. In winter too, the plateau, with its castles in the mist, has an atmosphere all its own.

The region is excellently connected. The E411 motorway between Brussels and Namur runs along its western edge, and the N4 regional road crosses the Condroz towards the Ardennes. Ciney has a railway station on the Namur-Luxembourg line, which makes the region reachable without a car too. From Brussels it is about an hour and a half's drive, from Namur a short half hour.

Anyone staying a week in the Condroz does best to combine the region itself with day trips to the neighbouring areas. A day for the castles and the villages, a day for Dinant and the Meuse, a day for the caves of the Famenne: in a short time you see a large and varied slice of Wallonia, with your quiet holiday home on the plateau as a fixed anchor point.