Belgium Trip
April 22-May 1, 2005
 

April 27th Parc Solvay, Foundation Folon Museum, Freyr Castle & Gardens

Out to La Hulpe where we visited the Parc Solvay and Foundation Folon Museum which is in the midst of the Parc. On hand to greet us was Stephanie Angelroth. Solvay is really a landscape garden with most of the plantings around the house. A beautiful vista all around and a wonderful place to just walk and enjoy the quietness.

Jean-Michel Folon loved this place and set up his studio on the 1833 farm located in the Parc. His works have traveled the world and yet because he retained ownership of most of them, decided to set up his Foundation here so that they would be preserved close to his native city, Brussels.

Lunch was at La Taverne de l'homme bleu in La Hulpe, then we departed to Freyr and the Castle and Gardens of Freyr. For those of you that watched the series 'Recreating Eden' you would have seen an episode on this garden. What makes it really special are the orange trees, some as old as 350 years. www.freyr.be

This evening we checked into our hotel, the Le Moulin des Ramiers in Crupet www.moulin.ramiers.com The hotel is situated in the little village of about 300 people and was a delight to walk around before dinner at the hotel restaurant. Our rooms were in a part of the mill built in the late 1800's for wheat and paper. Right outside my window I could hear a couple of donkeys chatting it up with each other. The other thing I noticed was mistletoe in the nearby trees. Some of them were covered in it.