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Mini-Stonehenge with Frites

On April 1, the travel section of Amsterdam's sensationalism-inclined newspaper De Telegraaf ran a little piece by Melle van der Velde on "de mooiste dorpjes van Wallonië," or the most beautiful villages of Wallonia. Wallonia, for those unfamiliar with Belgium, is the French-speaking part of Belgium. Photos of two villages appear in the Telegraaf's short article: Wéris, with its Stonehenge-light megalithic stones, and Falaën, with a cute little castle.

The Telegraaf suggests that Dutch tourism to the Ardennes, that forested, hilly region spread across Belgium, Luxembourg, and a bit of France, is on the upswing. This is only logical. Close to the Netherlands, the sparsely populated Ardennes region provides much needed geographical variation (being above sea level), not to mention some fresh air, for visiting lowlanders.

The "beautiful villages of Wallonia" is also the branded name of a rural tourist association in Wallonia. Founded in 1994, it was inspired by a French rural tourist association of the same name. There are 22 villages in the association, and they stretch beyond the Ardennes. One, Mélin, is just a stone's throw from Brussels.

[Image via Andre Wind/Flickr]