Best time to visit the Ardennes

Do you want to know when is the best time to travel to the Ardennes? You can determine the best time to travel to a destination based on the weather and climate. In addition, there are other factors that are not directly related to the weather and that can influence the best travel periods for a travel destination. Think, for example, of holidays or festive periods, which makes traveling more interesting or not, because daily life comes to a standstill as a result. For the Dutch and Belgians, the Ardennes is a popular holiday destination for those who want to be active or enjoy nature. This low mountain range is mainly located in Belgium and partly extends over the northeast of France and the northern part of Luxembourg. In the Ardennes you will find all kinds of landscapes such as dense forests, vast meadows and beautiful peatlands. The many attractive villages and charming towns make the Ardennes a fascinating holiday destination. A fairly large part of the tourists comes because of the many outdoor activities that can be done. Think of hiking, cycling, canoeing, survival trips and cross-country skiing.

Best months for the Ardennes

According to shoppingpicks, it is almost impossible to indicate a best travel time for the Ardennes. If you ask us when you have the best chance of good weather in the Ardennes, it is from June to August . These are the warmest months of the year, in which you have a reasonable chance of beautiful days with pleasant temperatures.

A destination for the whole year

For those who are not afraid of the cold, rain or getting dirty during outdoor activities, the Ardennes can be visited all year round. Every season has its own charm. In winter you can enjoy winter landscapes and in the higher places you can regularly participate in various forms of winter sports. In the spring you can see nature come to life. Summer offers the most pleasant weather for a holiday in the Ardennes. Finally, there is autumn. This is perhaps the most beautiful season in terms of landscapes. In the course of autumn you can see nature transform into a magical world full of reds, browns, yellows and greens thanks to the autumn colours. The best week in that regard varies a bit from year to year. It usually falls somewhere between October 10 and 25.

The Ardennes during the school holidays

The Ardennes are a great holiday destination for every school holiday. During the Christmas holidays you can enjoy yourself by a crackling fire or in a jacuzzi (if available), while it is bleak and cool outside. If you are lucky, there is enough snow for winter sports, such as skiing or cross-country skiing. The same applies to spring break. Especially if it falls early (in February), there is a reasonable chance that you can enjoy winter sports in the higher places in the Ardennes.

The May holiday is the period when nature blossoms. You see the Ardennes getting greener every day. The weather conditions for outdoor activities are getting better and better. If you’re lucky, you’ll get radiant spring weather with higher temperatures. Cooler and gray days with rain are also possible.

The summer holidays are the best travel period for the Ardennes. With afternoon temperatures that average between 18 and 22 degrees, it is often pleasant. The chance of dry and sunny weather is greater than the chance of gray rainy days. When it rains in the summer, it usually involves summer showers. They can be spicy and accompanied by thunder. Pay close attention to the weather forecast when you go out into nature. Thunderstorms and lightning can pose a risk when you are outdoors.

The autumn holidays mainly mean enjoying autumn colors and scents. This school holiday falls in the most beautiful part of the autumn. The weather can go either way. There is absolutely no long-term expectation for this.

With the formation of the Spaak ministry (May 15, 1938), for the first time in the history of Belgium the political direction is assumed by a socialist, with a cabinet of concentration that is constituted on the platform of the renewal of the institutions, of the solution of the ethnic conflict, of equalization in the scholastic field and of the fight against unemployment and leaves only the Rexists, the Flemish nationalists and the Communists to the opposition. Concentration, however, is only at the top; deep is the split not only between the various parties making up the government majority, but within each individual party: PH Spaak’s decision to enter into regular diplomatic relations with Franco (November 29, 1938) causes confusion among the socialists, who on the other hand, Catholics fight the unemployment insurance project, already accepted at the time of the ministerial declaration, and are accused of directing by the liberals. The situation – despite the ministerial rehash of January 21, 1938 (Spaak hands over the Foreign Affairs to Janson) – is still worsening due to the sudden resurgence of the age-old Flemish question, due to the scandalous appointment of a war traitor to the recent Flemish Academy in Brussels. of 1914, Dr. Martens, already sentenced to death, and the indignation of the liberals for this appointment. All this, with the pressure of the square (Spaak is beaten by the crowd), leads to the resignation of the entire cabinet (February 9, 1939). The political direction passes to the Catholic Pierlot, with the exclusion of liberals from government; but the cabinet remains in office for just five days due to the socialist opposition to the deflationist policy of Pierlot and his finance minister Gutt. The king signs (6 March 1939) the dissolution of parliament, uncovering the crown in the letter to Pierlot accompanying the decree, and also revealing authoritarian tendencies. For Belgium 2005, please check ehealthfacts.org.

The elections of April 2, 1939 marked a victory for the Catholic bloc, which became the strongest party in parliament, and for the Liberals, a significant weakening of the Socialists, who would or never pass to a second party, and a crushing defeat of the Rexists, who lost all parliamentary weight. Faced with the non-participation decided by the socialist congress, the new government that Pierlot constitutes on 18 April is only Catholic and liberal: created on the platform of Leopoldian neutralism, constitutional reform and economic-financial reorganization, it disposes of considerable powers by parliamentary delegation. extended; but it suffered the repercussions of international tension and on 3 September 1939 it was transformed into a new ministry of national union with Pierlot at the presidency and Spaak at the Foreigners.

After the war broke out, despite the growing discontent of Wallonia linked by complex ties to France and the increasingly strong cracks that – on the international level – arise between the politics of the sovereign and that of the responsible cabinet, Leopold III continues to remain faithful to the conception of integral neutralism: after having launched an appeal for peace on 24 August on behalf of the states of the Oslo group and offered, four days later, in agreement with the Queen of Holland, his good offices, he reiterates, once the conflict has broken out, in a proclamation to the country neutrality (September 4) and November 7 renews the offer of mediation, in harmony with the pacifist offensive unleashed by Hitler after the victory in Poland. This position, generally approved by the press, it takes a tragically absurd turn as the alarms of imminent German invasion become more insistent; but it always remains valid, preventing the implementation of the plan decided on November 28, 1939 by the allied command, while it exacerbates the traditional antagonism between the Walloons and the Flemings, the latter in favor of the policy of I. eopoldo III.

Under the pretext of “safeguarding Belgian neutrality”, denied, in the very act that von Bülow-Schwante handed over to Spaak the note, from the massive bombings of Brussels and Antwerp, on 10 May 1940 the Wehrmacht put an end to this situation. This does not mean that the consequences of a policy conducted for years were eliminated: the king and the Belgian high command – despite the fact that on 12 May the subordination to Gamelin was accepted – set up the campaign in the sense of a pure and simple defense of the territory and emphasized the unilateral nature of the obligations of the Western powers (this against the opinion of the Pierlot cabinet, which in turn does not speak of “guarantors” but of “allies” and on 17 May sent the king a letter of protest for the withdrawal of troops in the direction of the national redoubt north of the Meuse, rather than towards the French border). Faced with German power, in Belgium also favored by the sudden collapse of Flemish units (e.g., in Nevele, on May 26).