Things to Do in Dinant

Citadel of Dinant and its cable-car climb

The fortress guns still smell faintly of oil. From the ramparts you watch the Meuse curl like a grey ribbon between yellow fields. Inside, wax soldiers creak in dim corridors while an audio guide mixes cannon fire with birdsong. The cable car swings you up the cliff face so fast your stomach lags behind.

Grotte La Merveilleuse

A guide kills the lights and suddenly you're standing in total blackness, water dripping on your jacket collar. Then the floodlamps hit and the stalactites glitter like crushed glass. The cave breathes out cool, mineral air that tastes faintly of chalk.

Kayak run from Dinant to Anseremme

Push off under the Saxophone Bridge and the current does half the work, spinning you past willows and riverside campsites. Kids wave from pebble beaches and the smell of charcoal drifts across the water. You'll scrape bottom once or twice - listen for the plastic rasp - then hop out at the stone jetty for an ice-cream waffle.

Collegiate Church of Notre-Dame

The pearl-coloured porch was rebuilt after 1228 cliff collapse, so the stones still look freshly chiselled. Inside, thin columns leap toward a star-punched ceiling and someone is always practising organ pedals. The low notes vibrate through the wooden pews. Outside, locals sit on the wall eating couque de Dinant, that rock-hard honey biscuit you soften by sucking, not biting.

Maison Leffe for a brewery tasting

Copper kettles tower above the bar and the bartender pours Leffe Ruby with the gravity of a communion. Yeast and clove float above the foam. The first sip is warm plum and pepper. Upstairs exhibits let you sniff hop pellets that smell like green apricots.

Centre-Ville around Rue Grande for croissant smells in the morning and church-bell lullabies at night.

Les Rivages waterfront strip east of the bridge where rooms open onto balcony views of kayaks drifting past.

Anseremme hamlet upstream - quieter, leafier, and a riverside campground if you fancy sleeping under sycamores.

Spontin-Boven ridge south of town for converted manor houses where the only sound is cowbells drifting up the valley.

Falmigny countryside five kilometres out: farm B&Bs that serve Leffe-brined cheese at breakfast.

Hotel area near the station - plain but handy for 07:00 trains, and the bakery opposite opens at dawn.