Paging Tom De Moor

I will look into it a bit closer during the weekend. I lived in Trois-Ponts when I was little but time and I have moved on.

As a general rule: don't go anywhere near to the circuit, meaning in Francorchamps (the village) itself because prices include the fact that you near to the greatest circuit in the world (which is very important when you are sleeping). Same rule goes for restaurants - from a pizzeria to the I-rob-you- of-all-yer-money-eating places. Anyway: price lists are displayed (by law) at the outside, so look at them.

There are little villages/towns around, 5-10 km away like Malmedy, Trois-Ponts, Coo where prices will be at least 20-30% lower. The region is not that rich: there is the circuit, tourism and wood to be chopped/sold so a keen eye can get good accommodations for little money.

Spa itself is too be avoided if a cheap way to spend the night is concerned unless your are lucky a win some -I hope for you a lot- pocket money at its Casino.

Things to see: the circuit -the F1-circuit you won't get acces with a car but rather easily on foot-, there is also the old circuit which were then and have become again public roads. There is the circuit museum and at Coo there is a nice waterfall called "les Cascades" (outlet of a hydro-electricity plant ) and a big touristic domain which -I think- will be closed now as summer is gone and snow not yett arrived. The region is a great place to walk, most trails are well organised with arrows.

Remember that you are in the Ardennes: climat can be rather swiftly changing. Within 15 min sun can transform into to rain while 3 km further not a drop has fallen. The region was also the scene of the battle of the Bulge so memorials, little museums etc are spread around.

Drink some Belgian beer, eat some frites and enjoy the stay.

Tom De Moor

In news: snipped-for-privacy@news.telenet.be, Tom De Moor wittered on forthwith;

Belgium is actually one of the bits of Europe I'd consider living in. The beer and the chocolate are two of the greatest things on Earth.

Just don't listen to the radio whatever you do. It's truly awful.

Great info cheers dude :-) We're looking at doing the F1 weekend, so, Thursday to Sunday - flying in to somewhere, bussing/taxiing/walking where we need to be. We figure having a car there would be more of a hassle than it was worth really...

The main problem with not having a car is that the circuit is a bit out in the countryside. There's a lot of camping available around the track if that's something you want to do, but in terms of close to towns there's not much. It's also very hilly, being the Ardennes, so walking is quite strenuous.

The village nearest to the paddock and start is Francorchamps, about a

10 minute walk. ONly a small place with a few guest houses that get very booked. I've stayed at the Hotel le Bruyeres right in the centre a few times though which is very handy. Noisy though as the bar is pretty popular.

Some links here

It's the world's greatest circuit, in a fantastic setting and well worth some effort to go!!!

I forgot how much I've enjoyed short spells in belgium.

Burn the witch !