Sombreffe: A walk along the Sombre

Just the place to treat yourself or others! In Sombreffe, La Cabanière is a fine grocer’s with a wide range of typical Walloon products, some of which are from L’Entre-Sambre-et-Orneau region: Ourchet snails, Bertinchamps, Spyroux and Gembloux Abbey beers, apple juice from La Pommeraie estate, vegetables from the horticultural technical centre in Gembloux, chicory and potatoes from Coqueron Farm in Bossière, carrots from Baré Farm in Balâtre, dairy products from Baes Farm in Ligny and more. Each product is very carefully selected with respect for man and nature in line with the seasons!

At the picturesque place called La Goffe, the waters of the Sombre cascade through a wall of reddish rubble. Its waters then spread out and were used for washing clothes in medieval times. Later, the Goffe was used as a watering hole where herds once came to quench their thirst.

At this location, west of Sombreffe, there were originally three fishponds, fed by two tributaries of the Sombre (the Trois Viviers stream and another, unnamed one). These three fishponds were separated by a dike and ran alongside the path connecting Gentinnes to Ligny, which has recently been rerouted and re-stoned over a width of 3 meters thanks to the efforts of the "Sombreffe Trails" association. This same path spanned the Trois Viviers stream by a bridge made of a few large trees, which was repaired around 1795 using ash trees lying on the pond's dike. These bodies of water provided the population with fish living in the ponds (sticklebacks, carp), unlike the river fish (trout, salmon) found in the Orneau.In March 2023, a 3-hectare nature reserve was inaugurated on this site. You can observe birds, amphibians, insects, glaucous rushes, the fauna and flora of the pond... An observatory provides a beautiful view of the landscape of the Hesbaye Namur plateau.