04-08-2009 om 09:03 by Stafford Wadsworth

Like the pavement café, the chateau is a quintessential symbol of the continental European scene, and one only has to make a visit to the chateaux of the Loire to discover what pulling power these old castles have. In Meuse-Rhine, we are also blessed with the Chateaux de la Meuse, and some years ago Lily Portugaels, the one-time director of the Gazette de Liège (some will recall this was the newspaper for which Georges Simenon used to write), completed a survey of the Châteaux de la Meuse. The book has been translated into Dutch, and so is available in Dutch and French. At the press conference held by Olivier Hamal, a few years ago for the presentation of the book, on being questioned about other possible translations, Japanese and Catalan were mentioned, but as yet there is no English version.

Perhaps the best chateau vignette is provided by the empire and life’s work of the Limburg entrepreneur Camille Oostwegel, who recently received a special green key award for his Chateau empire. He started almost 30 years ago by taking over the Chateau Erenstein in Kerkrade, and then opened the adjoining hotel with a fitness center. The pièce de resistance of his empire was, of course, Chateau Neercanne, where the signatories to the famous treaty of Maastricht dined and which also rejoices in one of Maastricht’s Michelin stars - there being four other restaurants so honored in this fairly small city. Close to Erenstein, Camille Oostwegel also opened up a hotel, with its Italian Pirandello restaurant, which also rejoiced, for some time, in Michelin star status.

Perhaps the best template for the chateau empire of Camille Oostwegel is Chateau St. Gerlach, because it seems to encompass everything that Limburg has to offer in this area. It has a Baroque church, the only one in the Netherlands, with a gloriously painted ceiling which has recently been restored; it has a superb sculpture park and garden that links into a nature park. The manor house forms the hotel, and the chateau itself has already been the location for major international meetings, most recently of NATO; and at least one American president has dined there. It is interesting to reflect on this phenomenon, at the heart of the Maastricht region, which seems to express all the true qualities of the area: history, architecture, tradition, great food, and the superb countryside.

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