What do you wear for Halloween? I’m partial to beautiful fairies, sprinkled with glitter, wearing wings (of course). All of the best costumes involve wings.
- Cris

Sleeping in a Trojan Horse, Dining with Trolls

If Halloween is the season when stories walk off the page and whisper in your ear, then Durbuy, Belgium, is the place where they check you into a hotel and serve you dinner. Forget the usual pumpkin patches and plastic cobwebs - here, you actually get to sleep inside a wooden Trojan Horse and dine in a troll’s den.

Welcome to La Balade des Gnomes and La Marmite des Trolls, two creations that prove fairy tales aren’t just for children.

A Hotel That Refuses to Be Normal

La Balade des Gnomes (literally, “The Walk of the Gnomes”) is the kind of place you can’t book without first pinching yourself. Designed by architect and dreamer Dominique Noël, this bed and breakfast in Durbuy looks like it was drawn straight from the margins of a medieval fable.

The exterior seems innocent enough, but each of the ten themed rooms is a set piece for your imagination:

• The Trojan Horse Room – Yes, it’s a gigantic horse built of wood, where you sleep tucked into its belly like a mischievous myth come to life.

• The Moon Room – A glowing crescent cradles your bed, making you feel like you’ve dozed off in the sky.

• The Macquarie Island Room – Complete with sand and a boat bed, as if shipwrecked on a magical beach.

• The Safari Room – A tent pitched beneath a starry ceiling, with painted giraffes peeking over your shoulder.

The details are astonishing. Hand-carved furniture, glowing murals, trickling streams of water, and even a room that features live fish swimming around your bed. It’s all Dominique’s handiwork, crafted with the precision of a cabinetmaker and the imagination of a child who never stopped playing.

This is an escape into an alternate universe where design refuses to obey rules.

Going Somewhere? Protect Your Trip (and Your Sanity)

Halloween Comes Alive Here

Visiting in October, the atmosphere doubles in magic. Belgium is already famous for its medieval towns and cobbled streets, but Durbuy - the self-proclaimed “smallest city in the world” - leans into its fairy-tale identity. The crisp air, golden leaves, and whisper of history in every alley make the perfect backdrop to step into something surreal.

Checking into La Balade des Gnomes feels like being drafted into a living legend. You cross into a world where gnomes could reasonably knock on your window. At night, the creaks of the Trojan Horse seem less like wood and more like hooves, as if it might trot off into the forest while you dream.

Dining in a Troll’s Den

And then there’s dinner. Across the street, Dominique built La Marmite des Trolls, the restaurant that feels like the natural continuation of the story. If the hotel is the dreamscape, this is the feast hall.

La Marmite des Trolls is rustic, warm, and whimsically carved with troll-like figures watching from corners. The menu is hearty, true to Belgian tradition, with portions that would satisfy even a grumpy troll. Think wild boar stew, lamb dishes, local cheeses, fresh-baked bread, and craft beers brewed just down the road.

One of the specialties is La Marmite du Troll, a steaming pot of slow-cooked meat and vegetables that arrives at the table with medieval drama. You half expect a troll to pull up a chair and help himself.

The pairing is deliberate: sleep inside fantasy, and then eat as if you’re part of it. Dominique didn’t just build a place to stay or a place to dine - he built a parallel reality.

Why This Works

Most themed hotels teeter into kitsch. La Balade des Gnomes avoids that trap because it’s rooted in craftsmanship. Every wall, every arch, every table is hand-built. The attention to detail is so complete that nothing feels like a gimmick.

Instead, you’re reminded of the kind of Halloween we all secretly wish for - the one where the costumes are real, the legends step closer, and your surroundings keep nudging you to believe.

Why You Should Go

Because you deserve to stay somewhere that makes you feel like a character instead of a guest. Because life is too short to spend every trip in another beige hotel with the same breakfast buffet. And because sometimes, the best way to celebrate Halloween isn’t with candy or costumes, but with a Trojan Horse bed and a steaming troll’s stew.

When you leave, the streets of Durbuy will still feel enchanted. Ordinary doorways look like they might lead to secret worlds. You’ll start to wonder if the trolls followed you home.

That’s the trick of La Balade des Gnomes and La Marmite des Trolls: once you step inside, part of you never leaves.

See you next Wednesday.

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