Few suggestions to discover a country too often underestimated
(from LonelyPlanetItaly. Translation by Emanuele Bonini)
Quoting Simenon, the beer or Tintin is not enough to can say to have understand Belgium. This complicated country very rich in personality is good to be analysed under several point of view. Some times it recalls the memory of a hard work past, other times it's easier to compare it to a kind of Magritte's surrealist creations. Whatever be your Belgium or the suggestions this country produce in you, here are ten reasons to make deeper the relationship with one of the most particular country in Europe.
1. Ninth art praise
In Belgium comic strips (in Flemish "stripverhalen" in Flemish, in French "bandes dessinées") are considered the ninth art. The most popular character is Tintin, created in 1929 by Hergé. A specific museum has been opened in Louvain-la-Neuve. In Brussels the Belgian centre of comic strip (Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée) has not to be missed. In it are conserved the best creations from the best Belgian cartoonists.
2. Travelling by train with Simenon
In order to keep together the famous Belgian writer with an important piece of European history it has to be read "The train", Simenon's novel that takes place in 1940, when German Nazi Wermacht troops invaded Belgium. In to the stock car of a train travelling slowly to La Rochelle a man meets a Czech woman of Jew origin, constructing with her a world of desperate and ephemeral happiness. "The train" is a great book useful to can understand a crucial moment of both Belgian and European history.
3. Dwarves beer
The funny little dwarves on the label don't do justice to La Chouffe beer, one of the best beer produced in the Ardennes. But we talk about just one of the innumerable beer you can fin across the country.
4. Full sax!
Jazz has a very important space in the Belgian music. Were Belgians both Adolphe Sax (1814-94), he who invented the sax, and Django Reinhardt (1910-53), gipsy master of guitar playing from Hainaut. Toots Thielemans, great harmonica player, was Belgian too.
5. Ne me quitte pas
He was born in Belgium and he was buried in the French Polynesia, besides to Paul Gauguin's tomb. After his first LP, released in 1954, he became a real idol. He sang very passionate songs with an extraordinary intensity. Who are we talking about? Jacques Brel, who dedicated to Belgium the unforgettable "Le plat pays", a song composed to pay homage to the country where he came from.
6. "Velò vocation"
It's not necessary thinking to Eddie Merckx, Belgian cyclist considered as the best ever, to state that in Belgium bicycle is a vocation. The best way to can experience that is riding along the channels in Damme, in western Flanders: that's a unique emotion!
7. A perfect tiramisu
In 1857 the Swiss pastry chef Jean Neuhaus opened a pharmacy at Galeries Saint-Hubert di Bruxelles, where chocolate was sold as a cure for depression. His grandchild invented the popular pralines and in 1912 he started to put in sweet creams. A myth was born.
8. Monsieur Magritte
Breughel's or Rubens' masterpieces alone would be a good reason to visit Belgium, but those realized by René Magritte, the most important surrealist Belgian painter, maybe are even closer to the sensibilities of modern times. Magritte's slogan "ceci n'est pas une pipe" has had a non-stop use by newspapers, magazines, and advertisers. It's possible to find the same slogan in La Fleur en Papier Doré, one of Magritte's most favourite places in Brussels.
9. Mechelen, the kid living in you
In Mechelen (in French "Malines") there's the biggest cathedral in Belgium and an amazing main square, but still is one of the less appreciated cities in Flanders. With its huge Toys museum (Speelgoedmuseum) Mechelen is the cities where families have to go. Nearly 7.000 square meters of toys is something difficult to find somewhere else.
10. Carnival of Binche
Listed by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, the Carnival of Binche is without any doubt the key event on the calendar. Ceremonies start few weeks before with different events organised to prepare the Carnival, and celebration come to the top during the Shrove Tuesday.
 |
| Mechelen town hall |
Quoting Simenon, the beer or Tintin is not enough to can say to have understand Belgium. This complicated country very rich in personality is good to be analysed under several point of view. Some times it recalls the memory of a hard work past, other times it's easier to compare it to a kind of Magritte's surrealist creations. Whatever be your Belgium or the suggestions this country produce in you, here are ten reasons to make deeper the relationship with one of the most particular country in Europe.
1. Ninth art praise
In Belgium comic strips (in Flemish "stripverhalen" in Flemish, in French "bandes dessinées") are considered the ninth art. The most popular character is Tintin, created in 1929 by Hergé. A specific museum has been opened in Louvain-la-Neuve. In Brussels the Belgian centre of comic strip (Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée) has not to be missed. In it are conserved the best creations from the best Belgian cartoonists.
2. Travelling by train with Simenon
In order to keep together the famous Belgian writer with an important piece of European history it has to be read "The train", Simenon's novel that takes place in 1940, when German Nazi Wermacht troops invaded Belgium. In to the stock car of a train travelling slowly to La Rochelle a man meets a Czech woman of Jew origin, constructing with her a world of desperate and ephemeral happiness. "The train" is a great book useful to can understand a crucial moment of both Belgian and European history.
3. Dwarves beer
The funny little dwarves on the label don't do justice to La Chouffe beer, one of the best beer produced in the Ardennes. But we talk about just one of the innumerable beer you can fin across the country.
4. Full sax!
Jazz has a very important space in the Belgian music. Were Belgians both Adolphe Sax (1814-94), he who invented the sax, and Django Reinhardt (1910-53), gipsy master of guitar playing from Hainaut. Toots Thielemans, great harmonica player, was Belgian too.
5. Ne me quitte pas
He was born in Belgium and he was buried in the French Polynesia, besides to Paul Gauguin's tomb. After his first LP, released in 1954, he became a real idol. He sang very passionate songs with an extraordinary intensity. Who are we talking about? Jacques Brel, who dedicated to Belgium the unforgettable "Le plat pays", a song composed to pay homage to the country where he came from.
6. "Velò vocation"
It's not necessary thinking to Eddie Merckx, Belgian cyclist considered as the best ever, to state that in Belgium bicycle is a vocation. The best way to can experience that is riding along the channels in Damme, in western Flanders: that's a unique emotion!
7. A perfect tiramisu
In 1857 the Swiss pastry chef Jean Neuhaus opened a pharmacy at Galeries Saint-Hubert di Bruxelles, where chocolate was sold as a cure for depression. His grandchild invented the popular pralines and in 1912 he started to put in sweet creams. A myth was born.
8. Monsieur Magritte
Breughel's or Rubens' masterpieces alone would be a good reason to visit Belgium, but those realized by René Magritte, the most important surrealist Belgian painter, maybe are even closer to the sensibilities of modern times. Magritte's slogan "ceci n'est pas une pipe" has had a non-stop use by newspapers, magazines, and advertisers. It's possible to find the same slogan in La Fleur en Papier Doré, one of Magritte's most favourite places in Brussels.
9. Mechelen, the kid living in you
In Mechelen (in French "Malines") there's the biggest cathedral in Belgium and an amazing main square, but still is one of the less appreciated cities in Flanders. With its huge Toys museum (Speelgoedmuseum) Mechelen is the cities where families have to go. Nearly 7.000 square meters of toys is something difficult to find somewhere else.
10. Carnival of Binche
Listed by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, the Carnival of Binche is without any doubt the key event on the calendar. Ceremonies start few weeks before with different events organised to prepare the Carnival, and celebration come to the top during the Shrove Tuesday.
No comments:
Post a Comment