Fontaine de la Bonne Dame

The Chapelle de la Bonne Dame is a small schist chapel in the woods north of Lavacherie (Sainte-Ode), above the valley of the Western Ourthe. Beside it, spring water collects in a small shell-shaped basin to the left of the chapel, and visitors still come to rub their eyes with it. According to the legend, a convent of maidens stood here in the 7th century, in the great forest of Freyr, until bandits burned it down one winter night. Ode was the only survivor. She lived on as a hermit and walked down to Lavacherie to beg for embers, which she carried home in her clog. A newcomer to the village sent her away rudely and woke up blind the next morning. Full of regret, he felt his way to her hermitage, and she cured him by bathing his eyes in water from the spring she had made burst from the rocks. Years later she was found dead, kneeling in her hermitage. When people tried to approach, a thunderclap shook the hill and her body disappeared.

The recorded history is more down to earth. There's no trace of the place before 1572. That year Jehan Piret, from Brabant, got permission to build a forge and furnace for working iron. Because ironwork was dangerous, he placed his forges under Sainte Ode's protection and built the chapel and the fountain. A pilgrimage is held every year on the first Sunday of May, weather permitting. When fog rises over the hills, locals still say "la Bonne Dame fume" (the Good Lady is smoking), which means rain is coming. An information panel in French and Dutch tells the full story at the site. You can combine the visit with the Cheslin viewpoint, a short walk north, for views over the Ourthe valley.