Ô Mal-Aimé

Top choice in The Ardennes


If you're in Stavelot on a weekend, don't miss this eccentric delight. The dining room is smothered in bohemian quotes, poems and massed pictorials relevant to the French poet and art critic Guillaume Apollinaire, who did a runner from this very place in 1909. The three-course set dinners are imaginative and remarkably good quality, and Sunday meals are four-course ‘surprises’.

No credit cards, and no mobile phones at the table.

Ô Mal-Aimé also offers comfortable if ultra-minimalist modern rooms (single/double €85/95). At breakfast (included) you can appreciate the remarkable stained-glass frontage at its best.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby The Ardennes attractions

1. Eglise Saint-Sébastien

0.13 MILES

Behind a slightly shabby facade, this 1754 baroque church contains the truly magnificent sarcophagus of St-Remacle, a 1268 masterpiece of gilded metalwork…

2. Abbaye de Stavelot

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The once-gigantic church of the Stavelot-Malmédy prince-abbots was destroyed in the aftermath of the French Revolution. But behind the archaeological…

3. Malmundarium

5.01 MILES

In the covered former abbey cloisters beside Malmédy's cathedral, this cultural centre/museum hosts temporary exhibitions to pad out a city-history…

5. Casino

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Spa had the 'world’s first’ casino in 1763, and the 19th-century incarnation here now forms part of a grand central trio of neoclassical buildings, along…

6. Pouhon Pierre-le-Grand

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The restored, octagonal-fronted stone building hosting the tourist office was the site of Spa’s original springs. It was renamed for Russian tsar Peter…

7. Spa Monopole

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Selling the waters of Spa remains big buiness, with millions of bottles filled annually at this industrial-scale plant. A self-guided visit to the…

8. Parc de Sept Heures

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With a picturesque Léopold II–era pavilion and a wrought-iron marketplace hosting Sunday morning flea markets, this charming park also features minigolf,…