NICHE:IF MOVIE director Tim Burton ran a B&B, chances are it would look like this.
La Balade des Gnomes is a small but daftly formed 10-bedroom establishment in Belgium, each of whose rooms is inspired by the world of fairytales.
From the outside, it looks pretty much like an ordinary farmhouse down an ordinary lane. Its owner, an architect, began his visionary project with a restaurant, La Gargouille (the Gargoyle), which made a name for itself for its locally sourced organic foods.
Such was its success that he decided to build extraordinary bedrooms next door, including a suite sleeping two in the form of a rough and ready Trojan horse, complete with wheels.
Other rooms include the cabin in the forest, complete with twisted (indoor) trees, toadstools and a stuffed fox. The stars of the desert room has you out in the ersatz open, with a real rather than a metaphorical canopy of stars above you.
Still another is dedicated to trolls and though not accessed under a bridge has you down underground with a tangle of roots for decoration.
There’s an African inspired one too which looks like nothing Karen Blixen ever saw called the Hutta di Zobabou-bou.
The weird and wonderful BB isn’t the only thing to see in the area either. The old town of Durbuy is a 15-minute drive away and the centre of Liege just half an hour further on.
Closer to your accommodation there are dark woods to walk in, of course, dolmens aplenty and the eight-hectare maze at Barvaux nearby.
But really, the most fantastical sights of all are inside the weirdly shaped walls of your room.
B&B for two starts at €115. See labaladedesgnomes.be.
