DAY 15: Brussels to Waterloo to Reims (Grand Hotel des Templiers)

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After another lovely breakfast and a leisurely packing up, we set off for Reims in France, with a small detour to visit Waterloo. It's literally 12km from Brussels!

According to Trip Advisor, the best thing to do in Waterloo was to visit the Wellington Museum, so we did. It was a small museum in a former inn where the Duke of Wellington set up his headquarters. It was very nicely set out and was pretty interesting, but a bit unsatisfying as it concentrated on Wellington and not Napoleon. And it was also in the Waterloo high street and nowhere near the battlefield. 

We thought we'd have a quick look to see if you could actually visit the battlefield and, of course you could. And the site has a museum and Visitor's Centre and a glorious lion monument set up on an artificial hill. So we headed off there - about 5km down the road. (We should have gone there to start with.) It was rather sobering to look around at the fields and think what terrible fighting took place here - with the death of 20,000 men, and unnumbered horses.

As Belgium is so flat, the monument can be seen from miles around. You can walk up the 200 steps to the top, but we actually didn't have time. We wanted to have lunch and then set off on the 2.5 hour drive to Reims. There is a restaurant on the site, called  Le Bivouac de l'Empereur, so we ate there. I had a vol au vent with chicken and mushrooms and Jim had a hamburger. They were quite acceptable.

The rest of the afternoon was spent driving to Reims, and we arrived in the dark (at 5pm!) Reims isn't much of a town - just a stopover really. But there is a cathedral where the Kings of France used to be crowned - so that's something. We might check it out tomorrow. 

We didn't have dinner, as we had eaten a late lunch. (And also, Reims had practically nothing open except some questionable pizza places and kebab shops.)

Comments

  1. Barbara8 December 2024 at 17:31

    Of course Waterloo is close to Brussels! The Duchess of Richmond was having a ball the night before the battle and all the officers had to rush off to fight. Don't you remember your Georgette Heyer stories?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mary A9 December 2024 at 07:31

    Of course - I'd completely forgotten!

    ReplyDelete

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