Fontaine Aux Loups

A short distance from the Cascade du Coo, on the way to Spa by Roanne, is the Fontaine aux loups , which in itself offers nothing remarkable, but by the way will attract your attention and the cool and crystal clear water can taste. , if you know the legend of the conditions that gave it its name and the properties that have long been attributed to it.

The legend of La fontaine aux loups collected by Marcellin La Garde:

Gilles Benoît de Coo would throw a youth ball for his only daughter's wedding to a boy from the neighborhood. It was the middle of winter and part of the Amel was frozen over.

When the dance was about to begin , a young man remained seated in his chair . Gilles Benoît asked him why he didn't want to dance and the other girls said that Bertrand only wanted to dance with Louise , otherwise he would be unfaithful to her. But Louise wasn't there yet . His father , Antoine Gilet, had already left for Verviers four days before, intending to return the next day, but he had not yet returned. "How do you want Louise and her sister Thérèse to have fun while their father is missing and maybe dead on the moor? It's your duty as good girls not to come.” Bertrand, however, maintained his position that Louise would call anyway.

The dance begins, but suddenly a man bursts into the room. It is Jean-Noël who explains that he has just escaped from two wolves on the Ry to Coo road . He had climbed a tree and seen the wolves waiting.

Bertrand, thinking that Louise is on her way and therefore might encounter the wolves, says they must chase the wolves and asks who is going, but no one wants to. he goes alone

At the farm , Louise prepares to leave . Thérèse asks what he is doing now that his father is gone. Louise replies that she might as well go dancing because there was nothing they could do about it anyway.

They knock on the door and two men enter. They had seen Antoine Gilet in Verviers 3 days ago when he was leaving. "But he said he could also go to Hervé."

"You see," Louise said, "he went to Herve's, we don't have to worry."

Thérèse doesn't agree that her father has abandoned her for so long. She asks Louise not to go and pray with her.

Louise decides to go to the party to dance with Bertrand anyway and leaves.

"Holy Virgin, forgive her, for she does not know what she is doing!" cried the good Teresa and threw herself on her knees in front of a statue of the Mother of Christ.

Some time later , Bertrand arrives at the Gilet farm. He tells Therese about Jean-Noël and his encounter with the wolves. They decide to find Louise. Therese takes a sword from her father .

They follow the track in the snow, but suddenly stop. Bertrand has advanced and Therese suddenly hears 2 shots echoing in the valley. He approaches and finds Betrand passed out by a well, his sister in a pool of blood, and 2 wolves snarling.

As the snow melted , bones were found scattered in the countryside around Spa , mixed with pieces recognized as belonging to the unfortunate Antoine Gilet, who in all likelihood had been attacked and devoured by hungry wolves . It has been claimed that Heaven intended to punish Louise for her lack of filial piety by allowing Louise to die in the same manner as her father.

Teresa married Bertrand and the Well of the Wolves became for her a place of pilgrimage and a place of glory for the region, so much so that for a long time mothers had the custom of giving water to their children, preferring to drink from the well . because it gave her parents courage and more heart, they said.

Willem Vandenameele