D1 - Sbémont - 4km

The neoclassical Saint-Pierre Church dates from 1847. It features a very beautiful polychrome wooden altarpiece from the late 16th century, depicting the life of Christ. Two 17th-century wooden sculptures (Saint Roch and Saint Fiacre) stand above the altar. To visit Saint-Pierre Church, the key can be requested at the shop “L’Abeille”, to the left of the church. Inside the church, a booklet provides full details about the altarpiece.

At no. 10 Rue des Barbouillons stands an old half-timbered farmhouse with its bakehouse. The road winds downhill in switchbacks toward the Franc Ri, leaving on the left the fields and meadows of the Falizus. To see the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes (1902, built below a spring), the route continues along the road. Otherwise, a shortcut avoids part of the paved road. The road follows the Franc Ri. Along the inner course of this stream there once operated a mill, most likely built in the 18th century.

The steep-sided Valley of the Lesse beneath the Falizus nearly played a nasty trick on this beautiful river. In the 1960s, the government planned to build a dam to supply the Meuse. It would have submerged everything below the 300-meter contour line, which reaches the foot of the church.

Downstream, the valley curves and widens. A major diversion channel running alongside the path later gives rise to secondary irrigation channels for the former meadows. A manor known as Bellaire stood in the middle of this woodland until the 17th century. Mohimont inevitably calls to mind the fine farm of the same name (off the map, on the road from Daverdisse to Halma), probably built in the 18th century.

Pierre Bonaparte, son of Lucien, Napoleon’s brother, lived there in exile from 1838 to 1848. It is said that when he returned empty-handed from hunting, he would shoot at the cows. In 1870, a duel with the republican journalist Victor Noir, whom he killed, led during the funeral to a major republican demonstration against Napoleon III.

On returning to the village, a stop is made at the Cemetery. This is the former cemetery of the Lords of Daverdisse. The Castle stood directly above it, adjoining on the upper side. Below the cemetery flowed the Saint-Pierre Fountain, now invisible because it has been piped underground.