I had known of this place for several years now. But then, I felt, going there by public transport was a bit tedious when Atyudarini was even younger, so I kept skipping it, till recently when I knew I was going to say ‘Goodbye’ to Belgium. I couldn’t go without visiting this place - The Steam Railways of Mariambourg, plus Atyudarini is now a bit older to deal with a longer journey.

The whole journey takes a about 2:30 hours to get to Mariembourg. It is possible to do this as a daytrip, but I really felt there was no point doing that, esp. since there are several more things to do in the region, especially with Treignes being called the Village of Museums! So, I chose to stay there, at Mazée, the village next to Treignes. 

THREE VALLEYS STEAM RAILWAYS AT MARIEMBOURG:
As you know the first ever train line to carry passengers in Mainland Europe was laid between Brussels & Mechelen in 1835. As the railway lines rapidly grew across Belgium, in 1845, Chemin de fer de l'Entre Sambre et Meuse was set up to connect Sambre river with Meuse river with Railways! In 1854, this particular line, Mariembourg (BE) – Vireux (FR) line was laid. Later on, Belgian State took over the railways and in 1902, a border station was built here in Treignes and this line connecting Mariembourg & Treignes came to be known as Line 132. The was functional till 1963 for passengers after which it fell to disuse. However, by 1973, locals & railway enthusiasts came together to not let this portion of the historical railways die and set-up CFV3V - Chemin de Fer à Vapeur des 3 Vallées (Three Valleys Steam Railway). Mr. Michel Pâques, then a driver/mechanic at SNCB, decided to talk to various Coal mines to donate their steam engines instead of sending them for scrap metal as the transportation moved to diesel. Many were happy to do that, since Steam Locomotives represented the Industrial Era for them and very soon CFV3V was born!
As soon as I reached Mariembourg, a short walk took me to the Steam Railway station. We were right on time, the electric train had a few more minutes to depart (& the next steam train was a couple hours later).  My idea was this - take the electric train and reach Treignes, so we could watch the Steam Train as it rolls into the station a couple hours later, all huffing & puffing! When you’re inside a train, obviously you can’t see its smoke atop!!!
There is a museum dedicated to the Steam Railways, but we didn’t have time during our onward journey, so we looked into it, later on. 
As soon as we boarded the train, we chose a window seat & settled down. It was quite something to travel by this train. First of all, it was relatively quite slow (if you fall outside, you’ll still get hurt, but much slower when comparing to regular trains), the windows & doors were open. We could stand just behind the train operator and watch him navigate. The train went through quite a few tunnels and the track wasn’t ‘safeguarded’, meaning, people could cross the track anywhere. I spotted a man, moving away from the track as the train approached; then, 2 dogs, that literally stopped the train!!! The dogs wouldn’t budge from the track and the dogs’ owner had to put quite some effort to move them. So yeah, it reminded Atyudarini of ‘Usborne Farmyard Tales - The Goat that stopped the Train’!!! The train went through a very pleasing, happy, pastural passage, surrounded by greenery. There are a couple of stops in between. It was quite something to see the road crossings - the train would stop and the conductor would get off the train and hold the ‘stop’ sign for any vehicles that may be coming; there was one spot where the 2 road crossings were so close to one another, that she didn’t even board the vehicle, but walked between them! It was funny & awesome!!!
Ofcourse, through the windows, the views of the greenery & cattle was just so serene, but one view caught the eye - the Castle of Vierves-sur-Viroin. This is currently a private property and cannot be entered.
Soon we were in Treignes, and after spending some time at the Treignes Railway Museum, we headed out again to watch the Steam Train rolling in, as planned. 

Where is Steam Train of Mariembourg (on Google Maps): Chemin de Fer à Vapeur des 3 Vallées - CFV3V
How to reach Steam Train of Mariembourg by public transport: SNCB-NMBS trains run from Brussels to Mariembourg via Charleroi. You'll have to take a train to Charleroi and change to another train to Couvin and get off at Mariembourg. The Charleroi <-> Couvin train is not too frequent, so check the timings & then start. Click here for my article on the ways to find cheap train tickets in Belgium.
Steam Train of Mariembourg ticket prices: Adults: €16 for roundtrip & €10 for 1-way (if you're staying in Treignes overnight); Kids under 6 go free and other go at €10 for a roundtrip & €7 for 1 way. Tickets can only be bough 

Steam Train of Mariembourg timings: Changes annually. Usually 3 trains run per day. Check the official site of CFV3V

Tips for visiting Steam Train of Mariembourg: Check the Mariembourg-Treignes Itinerary below to plan you trip. The SNCB-NMBS Belgian Railway station of Mariembourg is about 10 mins walk from the Steam Train station.

The Steam Railway Museum of the Three Valleys is located right there at the spot where the Steam/Electric train drops you. It did remind me quite a bit of our own Train Museum in Brussels. All the information about how the Line 132 was revived and CFV3V was set up, history, heritage, was there in the museum. Various Steam Locomotives were on display.
There were very many huge trains & engines and quite a few of them, you could climb & walk inside. One of the trains is a functional bar and has disco lights installed in it that you could absolutely have fun party at, if you’re hiring the space to organize an event. Since someone’s birthday party had just gotten over when we went, the music & disco lights were still on and Atyudarini had fun dancing & ‘catching’ the lights. 
There were also many gadgets, machinery and items used by this railway line and Atyudarini role-played being a station master which those. 
Since we had visited there only a few days after Easter, the Easter activity for kids was still on and Atyudarini had super fun. It was a treasure hunt (of course!) to complete a puzzle (wowzee!) to find a code (awesome!) which is the unlock code for a numlock that locked an iron trunk luggage of the yesteryears, but was filled with easter eggs & candy canes! It could not have gotten better than this!!! 

Musee du Malgre Tout immediately became one of our favourite museums as soon as we entered in. The museum is dedicated to the history of the region including Natural History. The museum is in 2 floors and we started from the ground floor with the first exhibit dedicated to the Middle Paleolithic Era. 
Did you know that this region was a Neanderthal settlement in the Middle Paleolithic Era (300,000 BCE to 40,000 BCE)?! The most important site is Trou de l’Abime where the archaeologists had discovered a milk-tooth of an infant, fossilized and stuck to a piece of rock! This was way too perfect for Atyudarini because her classmates at school had started losing their milk-tooth and she was eagerly awaiting for that to happen to her! 
There were quite a few other fossils in display including pieces & bones of Mammoth, pre-historic Horse, pre-historic Great Deer etc. Then the display moved over to the Celtics, Roman Era, etc with their clothing, tools, pottery, coins etc. The display on the 1st floor was super cute with several miniatures! The best part were the miniatures of the various dwellings throughout history in this region from prehistoric to Roman. One of the fascinating miniatures was that of the circle of bones with skulls of various animals with the tusks of mammoth making the entrance! It was quite something. 
The museum is really visitor friendly with lift along the staircase for the differently-abled, little stools for kids to stand on, etc. Half of the upper floor is dedicated to activities for kids including drawing, some games etc.
The even more special part of the museum is the outdoor area. Remember the miniature prehistoric dwelling with various animal skulls & tusks of mammoth for an entrance? A replica of that in life-size was here in the outdoors! There were a few more dwellings including a tipi. Then there was something that made my daughter super emotional - a replica fossil of a baby mammoth from Siberia that died drowning in the icy cold muddy river some 42,000 years ago. 
Then there’s the outdoor activity area where activities happen during weekends & public holidays. When we went, Atyudarini learnt about mineral colors that was used by the prehistoric human to color & decorate their dwellings. The animator/guide also showed pictures of Lascaux etc. Finally, it was our turn to make some drawing with mineral colors! She showed us how to draw a mammoth and we did!

ECO-MUSEUM OF VIROIN
On Day 2 morning, the first place we headed to was the Eco-Museum of Viroin. Located in the site of a Farm-Castle, it was the place where Atyudarini had the most fun. As soon as we entered, we decided to try all the hands-on activities in the museum. There were quite a few traditional games incl. the old version of bowling with a puck & sticks(!), ring toss, sling puck, walking with wooden clogs, group walking with wooden clogs attached to a log(!!!) and finally wrapping it all up with a relaxing painting of a miniature wooden clog… It was entirely super duper fun morning for Atyudarini and the mild drizzling made it all even better!!!
After the activities, we walked around the museum, to see their permanent exhibition. The first room was the Wooden Clog making machinery. We only got to see the machinery and the unfinished clog which gave idea on how a log becomes a clog. On certain days, they also have a demo which unfortunately didn’t happen when we visited. Then there was a room on agriculture which explaining everything from types of grains to sowing to harvesting to winnowing etc. Then there was  a semi-outdoor room/shed dedicated to iron forging. Again, here too, we only got to see the machinery and not a demo. Outside this, was the entire outdoor display of various historic agriculture machinery through the history from hand-held ploughs to cattle-driver ploughs to current tractors. The view from here was so serene with the cattle grazing and greenery everywhere.
We came back here in the afternoon for the best memory that Atyudarini has of this trip - Etats d'Ânes, literally, ‘State of the donkeys’! The activity began with brushing & petting the donkeys, followed by walking on the road, over the bridge and into the hiking area dirt track, letting it graze along the way, crossing the railway tracks(!), forage some wild garlic, and head back to the museum… It was just awesome! All that said, here’s what that makes this incredibly awesome - this is actually a café where you are surrounded by these donkeys! You don’t have to go for the walk/hike, you can just relax with a cup of coffee/juice/beer/wine while the donkeys will just be around you or in the meadows behind. After the walk, I just sat here at the café while Atyudarini proceeded to pet & brush the donkeys as they were grazing in the meadows. Just incredible!!!

ESPACE ARTHUR MASSON
First of all, who was Arthur Masson? Well, he was an artist/novelist/teacher, whose father was a customs officer here in Viroin at the French Border. He was working as a teacher in Nivelles, when he created a comic character ‘Toine Culot’ an obese man from the Ardennes region. This imaginary character developed into a comic series where he becomes the mayor of the imaginary town of Trignolles; several other side characters were introduced including his wife & children, his cousin, a local pharmacist, a physician, and many more.
Today this museum is located in 3 buildings around the central square of the village. These 3 buildings once served as the nursery, boys school, and the girls school. The nursery houses the ticket office & cafeteria; the girls’ school houses the ‘School of the Yesteryears’; the boys’ school houses the ‘Trignolles Show’.
My first stop was the ‘School of the Yesteryears’- 'École d’autrefois'. This was literally a school from the yesteryears - complete with blackboard, wooden benches, hanging charts with pictures of human biological systems or types of birds or anything, quills and inkwells, slates and keys, dunce's cap etc. The students (meaning us, the museum visitors!) have to wear an apron-like uniform and sit down on our wooden benches in two-s! Then the teacher comes in!!! She’s very strict and has a cane/wooden scale in the hand. She asks questions and if we don’t answer properly or if we’re giggling, she shouts at us and we might even have to wear a dunce’s cap and stand in the corner!!!
Here’s the thing - I’m a millennial from India and Atyudarini is a Gen Z going to school in Belgium. While everything is funny & amusing & very weird to her, atleast half of those things were literally there in my school when I was a kid!!! We studied without internet and we had those charts hanging in the class, we wore uniform and sat in wooden benches in twos or threes. We studied before white boards & markers came into being and we had black boards & chalks. It was not too different from what I had except certain things like quills, inkwells etc. It was way too amusing for me to see Atyudarini’s amused, funny reactions as a GenZ kid in a classroom which was very close to my own childhood!!! 
After spending a while in the classroom we went over to the other part of the museum where the ‘Trignolles Show’ - 'Parcours-spectacle' is showcased in a series of rooms. This is an overview of the life of the comic character ‘Toine Culot’ and his village ‘Trignolles’ in 1930-60! It was quite an unusual way of presentation - you go in with an audio guide; but as soon as you enter, the door closes and its pitch dark; and then Scene 1 unfolds. You’re sitting in the middle of the town square and a carnival had just finished; there’s a stage and a things are being put-away… Everything is made a life-sized sculptures and the people are made of, I think, paper-mâché, and looks much like puppets! Once done, again, all lights go off and it’s pitch dark, and lights come up on Scene 2 and you walk there. While this was fun, it was a bit scary for Atyudarini when it got pitch dark. There are a total of 11 Scenes incl. the Pharmacist at the pharmacy, a classroom in the boys’ school, Toine Culot watching TV & reading the newspaper about WWII with his wife, etc wrapping up with Toine Culot & his family filling the boot of a car with suitcases to leave on a vacation. 
The museum has an excellent cafeteria called ‘Chez Toine’ and he had some quick sandwiches & fries for lunch before heading back to Eco-Museum of Viroin for Etats d'ânes. 

Staying in the tiny village of Mazée, we walked around the 4 streets of the village!! Yes, the village has a major roads passing through it and 2 semi-major roads in 2 other directions, that connect it to 4 neighbouring villages. In the heart of this village are just 2 streets and 2 other tiny streetlets. There was 1 bakery in the village that was closed for vacation and that’s it! There were no other shops! The nearest supermarket was Delhaize in Treignes, the next village! 
One of these 2 street is Rue de Moulin which branches to a tiny dirt track going into the wooded areas, hiking which, you’ll reach France! That’s about a 1.2km hike from the heart of Mazée. However, Atyudarini was in absolutely no mood to hike, so we walked a little bit but I gave up on touching the French border. That said the Mazée village was so charming with sheep everywhere, charming little houses with Wisteria around their doors & one even had an old milk can repurposed as a letter-box. 
Btw, traveling with a kiddo just means… you’ve gotta find a playground wherever you go! In the heart of Mazee is a cute playground and it was made even more adorable with the local family was just having a good time there with the adults having a drink & unwinding for the weekend while the kiddos (a bit younger than Atyudarini) running around. Atyudarini had a play-partner now! The playground even had a foosball table and playing it those kiddos was super-fun for her. 

Hiking paths in Mazée: via Sity Trails

Mazée to the French Border hike: via Sity Trails

Playground in Mazée: on Google Maps

The only eatery in Mazée: Boulangerie MAZ'PAIN

BEST HOTEL IN TREIGNES - REVIEW OF LE POINT DU JOUR
We stayed a night at this adorable B&B in Mazée called Le Point du Jour. It just has 2 rooms in the first floor while the owners live in the ground floor. Here’s what was awesome - the bed wasn’t made when we reached and she asked Atyudarini if she wanted the Disney Princess bedsheets and when Atyu said yes, she did the bed with it!!! I had to bit of tough time to pull Atyudarini out of the room to go explore Mazée after she saw those Disney beds!!!
The whole building is in 3 levels, but like a staircase/terrace (very much like ‘terrace farming’ since we are actually in a mountainous area). The ground floor is projected out the most and Level 1 was where we were and atop us was the swimming pool & garden. 
We had packed our dinner for the day, but if you need dinner, you’ll have to inform the owner prior, so she can arrange for it. Otherwise, you’re stuck in small village, with no restaurants & no Uber Eats! We climbed over to the garden and had our dinner with a view of the sprawling green pastures in front of us and 3 horses grazing away. Atyudarini noticed that 2 of those resembled Spirit & Boomerang (you’ll know the reference if you’ve watched Spirit Riding Free)! 
I had alarm set in the middle of the night, so we could head out to see the stars & milkyway and it was mind blowing! It was so incredible & pristine! Just awesome view of the billions of stars over our heads… The outside of the ground-floor even had a outdoor pizza oven, if you could bring some firewood  & get it going. 
The next morning, we were woken up with a yummy spread of warm breads, jams, butter, chocolate spreads & fruit yogurt and soon we headed out to Eco-Museum of Viroin which was our 1st place to visit in Viroin on Day 2. 

Le Point du Jour contact details: +32 (0) 6039 0143 (Ms. Marie-Françoise Lareppe)

MARIEMBOURG-TREIGNES ITINERARY

DAY TRIP TO MARIEMBOURG STEAM-RAILWAYS FROM BRUSSELS:
9:00 - Train from Brussels Central to Mariembourg (via Charleroi)
11:11 - Reach Mariembourg
11:11 - 11:30 - 10 mins walk from Mariembourg SNCB Railway station to Chemin de Fer du 3 Valleys.
11:30 - Auto Rail (Electric) to Treignes
12:00 - Reach Treignes
12:00 - 16:20 - Visit Steam Railway Museum & Malgre Tout Museum.
16:20 - Vapour Rail to Mariembourg
17:00 - Reach Mariembourg
18:49 - Train from Mariembourg to Brussels (via Charleroi)
21:00 - Reach Brussels

TWO-DAYS TRIP TO MARIEMBOURG & TREIGNES FROM BRUSSELS (My Itinerary)
Day 1:
9:00 - Train from Brussels Central to Mariembourg (via Charleroi)
11:11 - Reach Mariembourg
11:25 - 10 mins 
11:30 - Auto Rail (Electric) to Treignes
12:00 - Reach Treignes
12:00 - 16:00 - Visit Steam Railway Museum & Malgre Tout Museum. If you want, you could come back to the Treignes Railway Station at 3:00PM to watch the steam engine roll in. 
17:00 - 18:00 - Hike/Bike to French Border
Stay overnight in one of the charming little B&Bs in Treignes or Mazée. Otherwise, here’s a cool idea, hike/bike 5km to Vireux-Molhain, across the border, and stay overnight in France!!!
Day 2:
Walk/Bike from your accommodation to reach Eco-Museum of Viroin. From Le Point du Jour, the B&B where I stayed, Eco-Museum of Viroin was about 2.5km, but it was one downwards slope!
09:00 - Visit Eco-Museum of Viroin
11:00 - Visit Espace Arthur Masson
13:00 - Visit Villa Gallo Romain (I missed visiting this)
14:00 - Walk to Donkey activity with Etats d'Ânes at Eco-Museum of Viroin
16:00 - Reach Treignes railway station
16:20 - Vapour Rail to Mariembourg
17:00 - Reach Mariembourg
18:49 - Train from Mariembourg to Brussels (via Charleroi)
21:00 - Reach Brussels

BEST TIME TO VISIT MARIEMBOURG - TREIGNES

The steam railways do not operate in the winter between November and March. The first train usually runs on April 1st every year and runs only during weekends & long weekends. The frequency is much more during the summer holidays in July and August. That said, the hotels get filled up quickly for the summer season, so pre-planning for hotel booking is necessary. I'd say the best time to visit is during Spring holidays or any other weekend before July or after August.