Euro Spring 2015 - Part 25 - Bouillon, It's Not Just For Soup

Where Our Heroes

• Find a bullion cube of another dimension
• Take the tour de 3.1
• See a place that's for the birds
• Find just how young one can develop a sense of gastronomy
• Confirm that this is indeed trout
• Marchons, Marchons to artisinal ice cream and discover eating a cone is not a natural process

Yes we may be with our kids #3 and 3A and their children 3.1 who is 3 and half years old and 3.2 who is one year old but that doesn't mean that the primal urge to go forth and be tourists has been lessened in any way.  The 3's don't believe that life stops with children so we've a full schedule of things that we are going to try and do while we're in the Ardennes.

We are very close to the town of Bouillon.  Yes there is a town of that name.  The clear broth was named for the town.  And it has a big ass castle to visit.  The history of the castle is very interesting.  It goes back to the late 11th and early 12th centuries and the life of Godfrey de Bouillon.  He was the second son of noble and was made heir to an uncle who lacked one.  He had to do a lot of fighting to secure his inheritance and hence the importance of the castle.  As a side note he became a very important figure in the First Crusade and was a prime exemplar of Christian values such as the slaughter of all those who don't believe in what you do right up to his capture of the city of Jerusalem and the putting to the sword of all the inhabitants.  The castle of Bouillon continued to play important roles in history because of its location right through WWII.

The Chateau Fort (Castle) of Bouillon

This is not one of those fairy tale castles.  This is a real castle that was for serious defense.

Let's listen to our tour guide

Looking at the castle from the surrounding area

 

Before we go in we have to make sure everything is in order

Is there any confusion as to why #3 calls her second daughter 'Sausage'?

The Castle interior

There was a live falconry show in the castle and we got to meet some of the actors afterwards

Some views of the town of Bouillon

We continued to be gastronomically focused.  #3 was all for a nice meal.  We saw signs that the month of April is Trout festival time in Bouillon so we  found via the Trip Adviser App a good place down from the castle in town.  Here granddaughter 3.2 distinguished herself by eating over half of Wife's Soupe a l'Onion amazing her Mother and all of us because of her (3.2') loud protests if Mom didn't keep the soup coming.

We had two kinds of trout and a very, very nice Grand Cru Riesling from Alsace (freaking 26 Euros/29 Dollars for a Grand Cru wine).  The reference to trout goes back decades ago when #3 was a student in France. Wife and I visited her and while there had a meal at a nice restaurant where we insisted to Wife that she had trout when in fact she was served eel (for which she's never let us forget).

Son-in-law 3A showing that Frites are no laughing matter.

We wandered town afterwards until we found the one real artisanal ice cream maker (two flavors; vanilla and  chocolate).  We got one for 3.1 and quickly found that eating an ice ream cone is actually a pretty complicated practice.