Wallonia’s museums
Learn about the British in the Battle of the Bulge
It starts like any other evening in December 1944. Peace and quiet, interspersed with the chug of diesel engines, laughter and the rustle of trees in the wind. But then the sirens start, and all hell starts to break loose around you. AA guns hurl slugs skyward as the Junkers bombers drone overhead, shouts and screams fill your ears, and then the bombs start to fall. You’re there, experiencing a night in a surrounded and cut-off Bastogne. At least, for the few minutes you spend in a basement room of the 101st Airborne Museum in Bastogne, you’re there. A clever trick of the light and highquality speaker set-up make it almost real. But the Battle of the Bulge wasn’t just fought by the US Army. The Museum of the Battle of the Ardennes in La Roche en Ardennes is the only such establishment to deliver a section on the British part in that conflict. Read up on how they helped liberate La Roche over at the town’s
Rue Chamont. Further north, at La Gleize, the smart December 44 museum resides deferentially beside the village’s Royal King Tiger. Head inside to discover artefacts from the Ardennes offensive, including a mortar that lounged in local resident Miss Maria George’s orchard for 40 years. Museum hopping also takes Wallonia’s automotive history into account. Far west is the Mahymobiles Collection, a privately-owned assemblage of classic cars and motorcycles. More information about that on page 8. But real racing history can be glimpsed at the Spa-fracorchamps Racetrack Museum just three miles south of the circuit . It’s housed in the grand surroundings of Stavelot Abbey and boasts a discerning selection of motorcycles, Formula 1, Formula 3, and GT cars.