¤ Ardenne Bleue ¤

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Ardenne Bleue, nature protected.

Seventy kilometres separate the north from the south of Ardenne Bleue. Seventy kilometres of protected nature and varied landscapes.

In the north there are the green hills of the Herve region, orchards and enclosed pastures, where cattle graze on grass from a rich and productive earth. Here and there, isolated farms, and church steeples rising up from the hedgerows and smart market towns.

To the east, the plateau of the Hautes Fagnes and its nature reserve reveal a wild nature which appears arid like the Siberian tundra. But make no mistake! Its ground is like a giant sponge where water – still or flowing – gives life to rare flora and waters its strange inhabitants, on a legendary backdrop.

The forests of the south herald the Ardenne. Sometimes dark with low conifers pressed close together, sometimes tall and scattered with beech and oak trees hundreds of years old. The area teems with springs here as well, they pour down the plateaux, they bubble in summer and babble once again when the sharp ice of winter covers them over.

At the heart of all this flows the river Vesdre. After having created the wealth of the wool industry at Verviers, it has nowadays found its calmness and purity once again.