Problem
Driving across Belgium, leaving Dover and landing at Calais in France, or going to Ostend, you can route via Brussels, into Wallonia, as you cross France en route to Belgium or Belgium en route to France or Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and other countries, such a waste not to stop somewhere interesting en route. I have always wanted to see the Magritte Museum but seen to arrive before or after it opens, in a hurry to get somewhere else, or on the day it's closed.
Answer
"I've got a little list," as the Gilbert and Sullivan song says. I've compiled it alphabetically, by town. Plot the place and time, month and day, of your visit.
Charleroi - Rene Magritte (1898-1967)
1 Art Deco belfry
Unesco listed clock tower and belfry. I must admit I would not have realised it was art deco, but now they come to mention it. Looking at the photo in the tourist brochure I see that it has round-topped arches, and lots of parallel lines.
2 Rene Magritte paintings in Museum of Fine Arts
Rene's father was a tailor. The family had money problems and kept moving house. Moving house is nowadays known as one of life's stressful experiences.
The river Charleroi was where Magritte's mother, a dressmaker, drowned herself in 1912 when he was 14, found seventeen days later with her night-dress wrapped around her face. Three years later seventeen year old Magritte left for Brussels. But never forgot, as his paintings show.He knew de Chirico, was successful, panted murals, and lived to the age of 69.
Liege - Paul Delvaux (Painter) 1897-1994 (died age 96!)
Another Surrealist painter.
1 La Boverie, art museum, has Delvaux paintings.
2 Wine route. See www.liegetourisme.be
BE, of course, stands for Belgium.
Mons - Vincent Van Gogh (Painter)
1 Mons Memorial Museum
See uniforms, guns and drums of the military, plus exhibits on civilian life
2 Saint-Symphorien Military Cemetery
Among the little grey-white gravestones surrounded by green grass under the peaceful green trees are:
Two WWI gravestones:
First British soldier killed on the Western Front, Private John Parr, a teenager, in the Middlesex regiment; and nearby
Last British soldier killed on 11,11.1918, Private George Ellison.
See graves of British and German soldiers.
3 Mons Battlefield
Diary Date - November 2018 commemorations in Mons.
4 In nearby village of Cuesmes, see the brick-built Van Gogh House house where Van Gogh lived, now a museum. Van Gogh was a lay preacher, a would be minister to the miners from 1878, but was too pious for the practical miners, who called him 'the Christ of the coalminers' so he turned to painting and wrote to his brother Theo, "I felt my energy return".
Namur
1 Félicien Rops Museum (Musée provincial Félicien Rops
Tournai - Roger Van Der Weyden (painter)
(More later. I'm resting before New Year's Eve. I see that they have already celebrated with fireworks, first in tiny islands, then in Sydney, Australia. The Far East is next. Then Europe including England and Scotland, with Hogmanay. Then America and Canada.)
Story
For me the most memorable story, visually, is that of Magritte, who does the weirdest paintings, spooky. Yes, spooky. There's such a sad story behind his paintings. His mother committed suicide and was found with a cloth wrapped around her face. He was a young lad at the time. Clearly haunted by this, his pantings have a woman lying prone, deathly white, with a missing or covered face.
Some of the jollier famous Belgian-born notables do not have places commemorating them. But you may wish to cheer yourself up thinking of Sax who invented the Saxophone, the man who invented roller skates (adapted from ice skates which already existed), Georges Simenon (1903-1989) the prolific writer of the Inspector Maigret stories. (You have plenty of choice - 75 novels and 28 short stories if you want to read something by him on your trip. He went to live in Paris and the USA and died in Switzerland but received honours from Belgium).
Finally, take a tour around a brewery, stay in a format hotel, and for a bit of colourful fun, a delight for two senses, a gourmet hotel which tickles your tastebuds, then retire to your bedroom whereto can change the colour of your bedroom to your taste by flicking a light switch.
Tips
More Details from Wallonia tourist board which has a booklet on the area and the famous people and beers, wines, chocolate, cheese and other food.
www.belgium-tourism.co.uk
visitmons.co.uk
AUTHOR
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Follow me on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube. Like and share my posts.
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