Searching for the simple life in La Gaume

La Gaume is not the Ardennes, we were told by a couple in their late 60s who picked us up in Neufchateau and were going all the way to Orval. It was our sixth car of the day, hitchhiking from Brussels to Belgium’s southern-most tip in a quest for fresh air and organic vegetables, and we were happy to sit still for the last 30 kilometres and listen to the pair tell us about the region. 

Gaume was special, they said. Where the Ardennes is a network of cosy, one-lane villages and bigger towns, in the Gaume you could walk for days without seeing cars or houses. I raised an eyebrow. Surely this was an exaggeration, impossible to find in Belgium, one of the world’s densest countries. But they assured me it was true.

We had not planned on visiting Ferme du Bois-le-Comte. I found it late one weeknight on the Belgian section of the website of World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (Wwoof), an international network connecting organic farms with eager volunteers wanting to exchange labour for room and board.

It caught my eye because, despite being run by a Flemish couple, it was located in Orval, as deep as one could get in Wallonia, where Belgium tapers off to meet France and Luxembourg.

I read the description: an organic farm with an ecological guesthouse and course centre, offering half- and full-board to its guests from a 100% organic restaurant supplied largely from its own garden, which was designed according to permaculture principles. They brought in reputable chefs from around the world to cook up three-course vegetarian meals.

That sealed the deal. After an email to see if they had a room available, the next morning at 10.00 we were standing on Tevurenlaan with a sign that read “E411!” Within 10 minutes we were picked up, and four hours and many rides later, dropped off at the entrance of the Ferme du Bois-le-Comte.

A 100-year-old farmhouse, the Ferme du Bois-le-Comte is about simplicity. No internet. Hardly any mobile phone reception. Just a well-equipped room, with bed, sink and extra blankets, a clean, spacious shared bathroom and a steady supply of hot tea throughout the day.

Owned by a Flemish couple who purchased the farm in 1996, it is run by a combination of employees and volunteers (largely Belgian, with a smattering of international Wwoofers).

There are only two things indulgent about the farm: the drinkable freshness of its air and the food. The basic accommodation (€55 per person per night) is half-board, which means breakfast and dinner. All meals are vegetarian, usually vegan, and made with entirely organic products.

Our first night, we were served a thick vegetable stew followed by an enormous plate of a dhal, curried roasted parsnips (as thick as drumsticks), salad, rice, broccoli and seitan. If, unimaginably, one plate was not enough, they even placed the rest of the food on a table in the dining hall, where one could serve oneself seconds – or thirds or fourths.

Then came dessert. With stuffed bellies, we waddled to our room and snuggled into our bed to read and listen to the insects chirp in the dark.

When we awoke, we were confronted by the idyllic setting of the farmhouse nestled in a forest at the bottom of green, hilly pastures. Though still full from the night before, we hurried down to a hearty breakfast of porridge and fresh breads before setting out on a 20-kilometre hike through field and forest.

We started at the Orval Abbey, which can be reached by a half an hour walk through a beautiful forest. While an Orval beer drunk in the café of the abbey tastes very much like the Orval beer drunk in Brussels, the abbey is worth a look for its impressive architecture. For €6, you can tour the still-active monastery. We chose instead for the woods.

The Gaume region has much to recommend it. For starters, it boasts a microclimate regularly making it a few degrees warmer than other parts of the country, perfect for hiking, biking or horseback riding. As promised by our final chauffeurs, Gaume also offers the most breathing room of any area in Belgium. Soft, green slopes elegantly swoop into valleys of field and forest, with crooked rivers snaking their way south towards the Mediterranean. Villages are spread wide, and there are, indeed, some vistas where no chimneystack or church tower can be found.

For those wanting to know all its secrets, there is the Transgaumaise, a 140-kilometre circle route that loops through the entire region. There are books in French and Dutch that will guide you through route, which can be completed by foot in a week. 

For now, I mostly look forward to returning for more of that curry and roasted parsnip. 

For those not feeling up to a four-hour hitch, the easiest way to reach Bois-le-Comte is by car. It lies two hours south of Brussels. By train, it is 2.5 hours from Brussels’ Central Station to the closest rail station in Florenville. From there, it is 12 kilometres to Bois-le-Comte. There is a bus that runs  hourly during the week, less frequently on weekends.

www.boislecomte.be