GOING AWAY

Holiday country in the forest
FOR most holidaymakers' "Belgium" means those 48 miles of golden sand stretching horn Le Zoute ail the way to De Panne. with Ostend presiding in the middle and the flat plains of Flanders iii the background.
It is a great pity that more people do not penetrate deeper into Belgium, for in the south lies an ideal holiday country -the Ardennes, a great and beautiful forest interspersed with cornfields and threaded by rivers and streams.
Gateway to the Ardennes is the great city of Namur, an almost impregnable fortress in olden times situated at the confluence of the Meuse and the Sambre. It is a thriving modern city now, and with its many hotels and bars, dance halls, casino and night life, can offer as much as can the coastal resorts.
Queen or the Ardennes is Dinant. stretched out along the banks of the Meuse with its charming church and houses picturesquely reflected in the water. The town gives its name to "dinanderie", coppersvare of all kinds.
Visit one of the local copperworks and watch the metal being skilfully tapped and beaten into jugs, bowls, candlesticks, etc. Can you resist sampling another speciality of Dinant----eakes of gingerbread and honey. moulded and baked in a multitude of designs and shapes which fascinate you in every baker's and confectioner's window?
Dinant is a very friendly little town which welcomes you to the. "Forest of Arden" as Shakespeare called it. It has a good range of hotels, and is an excellent centre for exploring the beauties of the great forest.
Mountaineering is by no means confined to Ihe high alps, for the Ardennes can challenge climbers. experienced rock It was while climbing the rocky hills near the village of Marche-les-Dames that King Albert mysteriously fell to his death 30 years ago, The forest harbours quite a variety of game stags and wildfowl for the hunter and fish for the angler. The little town of Si.. Hubert appropriately enshrines the tomb of the hunter-saint or the Ardennes in its village church.
One of the boasts of the Ardennes are the Gil:V.0es of Han, a visit to which is surely a "must". After a ride up the hillside you walk through a fantastic maze of stalagmites and stalactites-one of the greatest "pot-holes" in fact in northern Europe.
After a most fascinating tour of God's own "underworld", a boat trip across an underground lake brings you back to Belgium's green countryside ...This is an excursion you really mustn't miss..
Don't forget' to include a visit to Beauraing. it was here, under a hawthorn tree near the railway arch that Our Blessed Lady appeared several times in 1932.
Today Beauraing is a great Marian sanctuary.
A beautiful modern statue of Our Lady of Beauraing now stands under the hawthorn tree, while nearby a great open-air basilica has been erected.
You'll like the Ardennes?
And so easy to get there -just a speedy train from Ostend to Namur, or if you prefer fly to Brussels and lake the road south.
Enquiries regarding mod should IN.. accompanied b., a stamped, addressed enselope and taint to: "Going Assay". Catholic Herald, 67 Fleet Street. London, E.C.4.