I am a lover of the seasons and the way they complement each other, and the reason I love winter is the way it warms my heart and soul. I am not a fan of being physically cold, but spending time with my loved ones makes more than up for that. I might not be religious, but Christmas is always a special time of year, and even more so the older I get. When I was younger, Christmas meant driving from pillar to post to try and see all family members old and new. Now it seems I have more of a choice of who I see throughout the holidays, this year I spent it with my chosen family.
After a Christmas filled with food, warm drinks, and jigsaws, I ventured out into Edinburgh to catch a plane to Brussels, where my parents would be picking me up to drive on to the Ardennes for a week of peace and quiet ahead of the start of the new year! They had booked us a cottage in Bérismenil, a charming, wonky, and contradictory house in a village with nothing to offer. It was absolutely perfect. We spent our first evening unwrapping presents, eating, and drinking wine.
On our first day we returned to a place we'd all been before; La Roche-en-Ardenne where we celebrated Christmas by visiting the Christmas market and ice skating rink. Most stalls at the markets sold local beers and were very decently priced, the warm wine with amaretto was an absolute winner, and the heaters made it quite the comfortable visit despite being outside.
The next morning we headed to Bastogne, a slightly more commercial town that had just celebrated the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge. After a simply delicious lunch at Boulangerie Collin we visited the Mardasson Memorial and enjoyed the modern art exhibition inspired by the Berlin Wall in front of the War Museum. The sun was playing favourites which made the low temperatures a lot more bearable.
After a relaxing evening watching A Family Affair with Joey King and Zac Efron, we choose a slightly less eventful Sunday, to which the weather agreed as the entire area was covered in a thick white mist. We drove to Wéris, where my parents and brother tested my French at the Maison des Mégalithes de Wéris. This small and charming museum highlights the megalithic site, the village and its wider region. The museum peaked our interest in seeing some of the dolmen in real life, so we ventured out to see the Dolmen of Wéris and a group of standing stones further down the field, despite none of us being dressed to protect ourselves from the cutting cold of the Ardennes. Sunday evening was filled with music, cheese, and more red wine.
