Though his home town was scandalised by his philandering and his erotic engravings &ndash Pornokrat?went down

Though his home town was scandalised by his philandering and his erotic engravings – Pornokrat?went down particularly badly – it has recovered enough to have a Mus?Rops (12 rue Fumal; 00 32 81 22 01 10; ), where you can appreciate the artistry and audacity of his caricatures.Charleroi is no less proud of its local heroes: the Surrealist master Ren?agritte; and Lucky Luke, perhaps the most famous product of the city’s comic-strip industry. You’ll find a life-size model of the contemplative cowboy on one of the city’s roundabouts. BUT DO THEY TAKE ART SERIOUSLY? The arrival of Mac’s in Mons merely cements the region’s reputation as a cultural beacon. Charleroi is the base of the maverick choreographer Fr?ric Flamand, whose high-tech, multimedia spectaculars for the Charleroi/Danses company include a collaboration with the British architect Zaha Hadid, and is home to a fabulous photography museum, housed in a neo-Gothic Carmelite monastery (00 32 71 43 58 10; ; Tue-Sun, 10am-6pm, €3.72/£2.60).

Tournai’s Mus?des Beaux-Arts (Enclos Saint-Martin, 1 April to 31 October, 10am-1pm and 2pm-5.30pm; November to March, 10am-12noon, 2pm-4pm, closed Tuesdays; €3/£2.10; 00 32 2 69 22 20 43) has a good collection (Rubens, Watteau, Manet, Monet, Seurat), and is worth seeing for the building alone: designed by the Belgian Art Nouveau maestro Victor Horta, it has a curved fa?e and an ingenious roof through which natural light streams in. Li?’s Mus?d’Art Moderne (Tuesday to Saturday 1pm-6pm, Sunday 11am-4.30pm; 00 32 4 221 9310) offers a smattering of 20th-century giants in an attractive airy pavilion, while St-Barth?my church (00 32 42 32 61 32) holds a wondrous baptismal font by the medieval master-craftsman Renier de Huy.Music fans will find much to enjoy in the summer, when some of Wallonia’s finest chateaux, churches and gardens provide the backdrop for the Festival de Wallonie ( ) and the Festival de l’Et?osan ( ). The dinky medieval town of Durbuy hosts classical concerts, while churches and castles along the Meuse provide the setting for riverside recitals. July is the month for music among the beautiful ruins of the Abbaye d’Aulne (1 April to 30 September, 10am-12 noon and 1pm-6 pm, closed Tuesdays, €2/£1.40; 00 32 71 51 52 98; for festival details ) and the 16th-century Basilica of St-Hubert, the Ardennes town where Hemingway holed up during the Second World War. SHOULD I MENTION THE WAR? You can’t get away from it in the Ardennes, where the Allies crushed Hitler’s last counter-offensive during the winter of 1944-45.

The star-shaped American Memorial on Mardasson Hill, Bastogne, records the names of the units that took part in the Battle of the Bulge; you’ll find a Sherman tank on the main square. The Henri-Chapelle cemetery, near Welckenraedt, with endless curving rows of pristine white crosses, is an especially moving tribute to the 7,989 American soldiers who died during the Ardennes campaign. Wallonia is also home to the battlefield of Waterloo, though the town itself isn’t much to write home about; better to switch sides and head for the villages of Charleroi, which are still loyal to Boney. In May and June, marchers in full French uniform parade through towns and villages as they retrace the “Route de Napol?” that led the diminutive dictator to his downfall. HOW DO I GET THERE? Ryanair (0871 246 0000; ) flies to Charleroi, which is a good starting-point for any exploration of the Ardennes, from £35 return. It also flies to Maastricht, just across the Dutch border from Li?, from £50 return. Most of Wallonia’s cities are within an hour’s train ride from Brussels, to which Eurostar (08705 186 186; ) has returns from Waterloo from £59.

Tournai, Mons and Charleroi are also within easy reach of Lille, in France – Eurostar returns from £55. There are services from 11 UKairports to Brussels National: British Airways (0845 77 333 77; ) flies from London (from £65), Manchester (from £110) and Edinburgh (from £120).If you’re coming by car, Eurotunnel (08705 353535; ) has returns in May from £220; while Hoverspeed (0870 240 8070; ) has eight-day off-peak returns from Dover to Calais for £119 in May. WHERE CAN I FIND OUT MORE? The Belgian Tourist Office: Brussels & Wallonia, 217 Marsh Wall, London E14 9FJ (020-7531 0390; ); is the official website for the Wallonia.. Destination of the week: Boulogne

Destination of the week: Boulogne
The fastest ferry across the Atlantic will soon start shuttling between Dover and Boulogne. SpeedOne holds the Blue Riband as the only ferry to cross the ocean in less than three days. She was due to begin Channel crossings on 2 May, but the launch of SpeedFerries (08700 60 39 000, ) has now been postponed to 2 June.