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| View from Liège-Guillemins railway station including a tram |
With its curvaceous canopy, arrival at
Liège-Guillemins railway station, is always a special experience. On our second visit to the city, the double-decker train took just over an hour for the 90 km journey from Brussels-Midi/Zuid. It was dark when we arrived around 6pm but there was an opportunity to photograph Santiago Calatrava's architecture on another day.
A 58
Le TEC bus took us across the river Meuse and dropped us opposite the door to our accommodation on Rue de Renory. We stayed for three nights in the
Angleur district which is mainly residential. The 70 metre tall tower which supports the cable stays for the 25 years old
Pont du Pays road bridge is a short walk away. The light at the top is a landmark at night.
We didn't need to cross the river again to visit Le Petit Vaudrée, just over a kilometre away from the right bank of the river Meuse and slightly closer than it's sister establishment, the more upmarket
Le Vaudrée restaurant / brasserie which is at the other end of Rue Henri Durant. Angleur railway station is located a little further away.
Le Petit Vaudrée
Le Petit Vaudrée, at the corner with Rue Vaudrée, was quite brightly lit inside with an old
map (1647) of Liège on the wall opposite the windows. We found a free table by the windows on the Tuesday evening of our arrival.
This also gave a view of the bar with five draught beers including Tripel Karmeliet, Jupiler Pils and Scotch CTS. Crowned Trees Scotch was first brewed in the Forest district of Brussels by Wielemans in the 1920s but is now brewed in Leuven by Artois as mentioned in an article by Eoghan Walsh for
Brussels Beer City in 2020.
The bound menu also lists a range of bottled beers including the local
Tripick range - 4,5,6,7 and 8 - at €4.50 for 33cl.
This made it easy to pick our first beers of the evening -
Tripick 4 and 5. The label for Tripick 5 mentions Unfiltered Blond Beer - High Fermentation. An ingredient listed is Courtil water and the brewery in Courtil is Brasserie Lupulus also known by it's old name - Brasserie Les Trois Fourquets. Our first round was served wth a complimentary small dish with a variety of small salty biscuits.
It's possible to obtain take away fried or grilled food from La Frite du Petit Vaudrée, next door. Note that unless you have ordered in advance, it's necessary to wait your turn as customers orders are individually cooked to order.
To view the performance of draining the frites, and tossing them in an oversized stainless steel cone with a handle, before tipping them into a carton that is then wrapped with paper and pricked with a fork, is worth the wait! We thought that a large order of frites (€3.50) would serve two but we could not finish them!
We also ordered sauce andalouse (€1.20), cheese croquette (€3) and a beef skewer (€4.50). Wooden forks are provided.
Tim's final beers here were Tripick 6, a fruity blonde and Tripick 8 a Tripel, also unfiltered. These were both liked better than the Tripick 4.
This is a bar for locals and it was nice that we could have a table here and enjoy our meal without embarrassment as others were doing the same.
Two regular customers who had been at the bar later chatted with us after hearing English spoken. They explained they were Czech and liked the Scotch CTS beer served here. They both work at
Liège airport west of the city which is a major European hub for airfreight.
They were surprised to learn that we had recently travelled to the Czech Republic but this was before they realised that our 'good English' was because we were actually English! They seemed to hold Britain in higher regard than Belgium but were concerned that our standards might also have fallen as the English workers they knew at the airport had mostly moved to Spain. We reassured them that London is still a safe place to live.
Another way to find Tripick beers in Liège would be to visit
Le Tripick Brasserie, located opposite the station at Place des Guillemins,1.
Taverne L'Aigle d'Or
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| L'Aigle d'Or, Pl. du Général Leman 19. 14/1/2026 12:45pm |
In January 2025,
Taverne L'Aigle d'Or was the first place we visited but this was only for coffee as it was soon after the 11am opening time. A year later we would visit on Wednesday and Thursday evenings and enjoy some beers.
It was about 9.15pm on the Wednesday night when we arrived after catching a tram at Place St-Lambert (above) to Général Leman (8 stops).
We only had time for one beer this time and enjoyed draught Tripel Karmeliet. There was also an opportunity to get photos of some of the beers displayed in the fridges next to the bar.
On Thursday evening, after a shorter tram ride from Pont d'Avroy (5 stops), we arrived at L'Aigle d'Or around 8.15pm to find all the dining tables occupied.
We were allowed to sit at a table near the bar and enjoy a beer until a table became free. Tim chose the house beer brewed by Brasserie Minne L'Aiglon. When Frank (humble_beer on Untappd) from Aachen visited two years previously his description was 'Peach, mango, violets, bright grains, fresh dry hop aroma blending with Belgian yeast spice, moderate bitterness with dry finish. Great house beer.'
We soon had a chance to move to a dining table and study the menu and draught beer list on blackboards.
A post by Brugge-based Jezza (@bonsvoeux1) on
BlueSky about L'Aigle d'Or from September 2025 included photos and the following text '
Down to earth locals bar [with] great meatballs & c.150 beers. Unlikely place to find two Brasserie Minne ticks on draft, but a house IPA & their saison really hit the spot. Classic place this, worth a visit.'
Read about our previous visit to Liège, on a day trip from Namur, in late January 2025 which also features L'Aigle d'Or, in the
Liege 2025 post on the Beer Europe blog.
Our visits to bars and breweries in the University and Saint-Lambert districts of Liege in January 2026 will be covered by separate posts on the Beer Europe blog.
