According to the signs, Durbuy should be the world's smallest city. Durbuy is a beautiful and small city, but to my knowledge it's not the smallest city in the world! The world's smallest city should be Bronkhorst near the river IJssel in the Dutch province of Gelderland. Bronkhorst, with it's 150 inhabitants, received it's municipal rights in 1482. However, Durbuy is a great place to spend some time, visiting all the shops in the narrow streets, lying down alongside the river Ourthe or viewing the castle.

Together with my best friend, I went to the Belgian Ardenne for one day. Our first stop (after several coffee breaks and a pit stop for some gas) was Durbuy. Durbuy is supposed to be the smallest city in Europe. It lies in the heart of the Ardenne, somewhere along the 'Cheese Route'. They call it that, of course, because a lot of farmers make cheese in this area. Among those, is Rochefort, not to be confused with the more famous (and French) Roquefort, the town that gives its name to the blue cheese. Besides cheese, Rochefort is known for its beer. Today however, we skipped Rochefort and went to Durbuy.

Durbuy calls itself the 'smallest city in the world' because back in 1331 it obtained City rights. For a long time, no more than 400 residents lived there. Today however, it isn't a city anymore 'cause it lost its claim somewhere in the 1970's, when it joined with neighbouring villages. Anyway, small it is. About 8000 people live in the entire community, a few of those in Durbuy. The history is clearly visible. There are houses and other buildings from the last seven centuries. The village is full of character as you can see in below pictures.

Durbuy is situated on two sides of the river 'Ourthe'. In the past, I went kayaking on this river. The many rapids make it an adventurous undertaking. In the last couple of days, a lot of rain has fallen as well as 10cm of snow, all of which has melted. This made the river run even more rapid. Too bad one cannot catch that on a still picture. The typical Ardennes grey stone is the choice of building material here in Durbuy. This, on a grey and rainy November 11, made it hard to take colourful pictures. Thank heavens it is autumn for otherwise there would have been no colour at all. Now at least, the pumpkins and umbrellas did the trick.

The main feature in Durbuy is a castle. The count of Luxemburg built it on a rock and used it as part of a line of defence. He formed this line against the neighbouring bishopric that was trying to expand. Faith and peace… a difficult combination. We spend an hour or two in Durbuy and then went on our way. Next stop: La Roche en Ardenne.