Namur Visit

I had never been to Namur before, indeed, I have visited Brussels many many times, and have visited Flemish towns/cities, such as Ghent, Bruges, Antwerp and Leuven before too. So my brother Dan recommended we visit Namur for the day from Brussels (more of in another blog to be written very soon), Namur, the capital of Wallonia (Visit Wallonia) is a short train journey from Brussels. Our first stop was the tourist office (website), as I always like to get myself a wee map of places I visit so I can work out where I'm going. The tourist office is very close to the Sambre, which is a tributary of the Meuse, and conjoins just a few hundred metres further away.

We decided to find somewhere to look at the map and drink a coffee near the tourist office, and we found the Taverne Le Prince Baudouin, Rue de Marchovelette 15 (facebook), opposite La Bourse. A right friendly locals bar, neat and tidy, and the most choice for what to add to a coffee I've ever had, served up with the black coffee were milk, cream, whipped cream and a wee biscuit, which, as Dan doesn't like them particularly, I consequently had 2 biscuits. 😁

After some sight-seeing and touring the area (Namur's not so big), and working out where we would be drinking later, we settled on eating at La Taverne Alsacienne, Place Marche aux Legumes 11, 5000 Namur, (facebook)  in the first photograph above, which specialises in cuisine from the Alsace region of France. We had 2 different versions of their speciality Flammekueche, a bit like thin crusted pizzas made with flat bread, with a very decent salad, and delicious! 😋

As you can see above, we both drank the 8.4% Karmeliet Tripel (website), brewed with Styrian Golding hops (hopslist), at the Brouwerij Bosteels in the village of Buggenhout in East Flanders; the brewery was founded in 1791 (website). A golden ale, a wee bit sweeter than Westmalle (more soon), plenty of fruit and body, hints of vanilla and citrus, pretty good! 👍

I was pretty disappointed by two of the bars I was intending to visit, earlier we had tried La Cuve a Biere (facebook), but even though it was a Friday, it wasn't opening until late afternoon, and La Chapitre (above - facebook) was meant to be open by 14.00, but it still wasn't open at 15.00! If I return it will have to be at a weekend, or stay there overnight. 😞

So, a wee bit frustrated, we ended up in Barnabeer, Rue de Bruxelles 39, 5000 Namur (website), which we knew was open at 14.00 because we had passed by earlier, I told you Namur isn't a huge place. 😉 Indeed, Barnabeer is open from 14.00 every day of the week (open until 01.00 Monday to Thursday and until 02.00 on Fridays and Saturdays); it remains closed all day on Sundays. Who knows what the craic is Sundays in Namur, I'll not be finding out methinks. 😒

Barnabeer is quite roomy inside, with a large outside area too, indeed, when we were there all the action appeared to be outside, mostly younger folk going out there, but some older folk too. It had the feeling of an old bank to me, but I cannot discover the original purpose of the building, it is certainly impressive. They have an impressive beer list too, with over 300 different beers available, as you can gather from the image including the bar above, about 45 beer fonts!

The staff are very friendly and informative, and we decided to have bottled beers from 2 local-ish breweries, interestingly, rather than having glasses for each different beer, as is usual in Belgian bars, they serve all beers up in their own glasses, as you can see from this image. Floreffe Tripel (8.0%), an Abbey Style blonde beer has been brewed by Lefebvre in Quenast since 1983 (website). Specific hops used are kept secret, but include a combination of European and English hops, certainly producing an easy drinking beer, with a slightly spicy finish, nice one. 

Floreffe Abbey was originally founded in 1121, with a brewery set up in the abbey during the 13th century, the abbey was abandoned by the monks at the end of the 18th century following the French Revolution. Their brewery was restored in 1960 and brewing was run there by Het Anker (website) until 1983. Maredsous Abbey is a much newer abbey founded by Benedictine monks in 1872, with brewing not starting until 1947; since 1963 Duvel Moortgat (website) began brewing their beers under licence until 2023, when the Maredsous Microbrewery was created in collaboration with Duvel Moortgat (website).

So, to my favourite beverage of the trip, Maredsous Tripel (10.0%), brewed using Styrian Golding (hopslist) and Saaz (hopslist) hops. Maredsous Tripel is a golden-orange-amber colour with a gentle malty aroma and flavour with hints of banana, orange and apple, and spicy cloves and coriander to finish. Sweet at first, but with a bitterness coming through very soon to balance the overall taste, quite rich, and very good indeed! 👍

This photograph was taken on the train on the way to Namur, looks as though it could be in English, but is in French, as this was the train destined for Luxembourg from Brussels. On reaching Namur, the city centre is just 10-15 minutes walk due south from Namur railway station.

So, my next blog should be about Brussels, cheers for now folks! 😁