The belfry of Namur is a stout, round tower with a bulbous slate roof, not at all the slender Gothic spire people imagine when they hear the word. It started life in the fourteenth century as part of the town walls, the Tour Saint-Jacques, and later became the belfry, holding the bell that rang the hours and the curfew. It is one of the many towers in the World Heritage Site of the Belfries of Belgium and France.
Namur sits where the Sambre meets the Meuse, and the great rock between the two rivers carries one of the largest citadels in Europe, a maze of walls, tunnels and bastions built and rebuilt over centuries by whoever held the town. Vauban and his Dutch rival Coehoorn both left their mark here during the wars of Louis XIV. You can ride up to the top and look down on the confluence, the town's slate roofs and the river barges sliding past. The old town below has narrow streets, squares with cafés and a relaxed provincial feel, despite being the capital of Wallonia.
For riders, Namur is the gateway to the Meuse valley and the Ardennes. The road south along the Meuse to Dinant is one of the classic rides of Belgium, following the river between limestone cliffs, past castles, rocks used by climbers and little riverside villages. The N92 on one bank and smaller roads on the other let you make a loop. From Dinant, roads lead into the Ardennes proper, with forests, valleys and some of the best curves in the Low Countries. Weekends bring a lot of bikes and some police attention, and wet leaves in autumn deserve caution.
Floreffe, eight kilometres west, has an abbey on a hill whose monks once brewed beer, and the name lives on in the abbey beers sold today. Namur's own drink is pékèt, a juniper spirit that flows freely during the town's festivals in September, when stilt fighters from the old town battle in a tradition going back centuries.
Fuel and services are everywhere in Namur. Park near the river and climb on foot to the belfry and the old town, or ride up to the citadel for the view and come down for a waffle.