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Belgium
Pushing open the door of this rickety townhouse you have become a child in a book, sneaking inside a mysterious attic. Your gaze fixes on piles of cardboard boxes, two enormous stuffed tigers and heaving wooden display cabinets as old as their contents.
There is a logic to the displays, but you notice that this is not applied rigidly. There are train sets, dolls, cowboys and Indians and piggy banks competing with model kitchens, tin
soldiers and wind-up ladybirds. There’s wood and metal, but not so much plastic. Teddy
bears can be found everywhere, along with wooden toys to climb on and plenty of corners
to play hide and seek. Through a window you glimpse a workshop where dolls’ limbs and
broken rocking horses hang, just waiting to be nursed back to life. Other children laugh and chatter away as they clamber on the exhibits, and the adults seek out their own childhood toys and rarer items such as a Noah’s ark, paper theatre or dolls houses behind glass. They’d say the only thing that’s missing is a coffee shop.
Then I stumble across André, the curator of the museum tucked in a room downstairs, working with a young apprentice. He says that as a father of six children, he found he was always packing and unpacking toys. The idea for a museum came automatically thirty years ago, and it has now been in its current location for 22 years. “It’s dusty, noisy and full of bric-a-brac”, he smiles. “But people still really like it.” The children will tell him that he has understood the interactivity part all right, unlike many other stuffier museums. “A toy has to be played with”, André says. Luckily it is easier to acquire toys that are a little worn, and that explains the 35,000 objects, the 700 or so teddy bears, the vaults underground and the crammed attic above. “It’s a lot of work”, says André of the constant tidying, unpacking and restoration, “but really it’s a pleasure.”
He’s even written a book about working at the museum, with a name strikingly similar to that of a famous film. Thinking about it, this place is the perfect setting for a film, if only the toys came alive after dark …
www.museedujouet.eu
Rue de l'Association/Verenigingstraat 24
1000 Brussels, Belgium
+32 (0)2 219 61 68
Metro: Madou or Botanique
Google map: bit.ly/vAouzO
* Bec is our Been there local for Brussels. You can view her profile here: www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/articles/brussels-local-rebecca.jsp and follow her tips here: www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/travellers/Becinbrussels
“It’s not really a museum – or it was, or might have been”, muses Jan Bucquoy. I allow my eyes to flit around the room and take in his collection of wall collages. I see Napoleon, Michael Jackson,
Lenin, Hitler - all with brazen red lips and lacy fabric on their heads. Only Magritte’s head has an apple instead, “I thought that surrealism was already strange enough!” Chuckles Bucquoy. Moving over to take a closer look at one of the exhibits, I read the solemn notice:
“Please complete the aforementioned coupon and return it together with your pants.”
So here I am in Brussels’ anti-Museum of underpants, which has persisted in various locations since its creation in 1990, fanning the infamous reputation of its already infamous creator. Of course it’s an anti-museum because it doesn’t just represent dead things: the owners of some of the pants are very much alive! And for Bucquoy this is not art for art’s sake, it is reminding us that we all wear underpants, that we are all ... equal! Giggling aside, perhaps there’s some truth in the juxtaposition
of power and lace: stern portraits of Sarkozy, Clinton and de Gaulle all seem less intimidating with a pair of frilly ladies’ smalls on their head. And what of Bucquoy? “No, the Director doesn’t wear pants”, he says, mischievously.
This small sample of Bucquoy’s extensive collection is displayed in De Dolle Mol, a weathered Flemish bar re-opened after rising rents forced it to close; and now supported by the Flemish community, sometimes hosting musicians and cultural events. Linked to the liberation of women, the birth of the Flemish Amnesty International movement and the B-generation, this place has always been the home of dreamy revolutionaries and self-styled outlaws, and seems to be attracting fans from the school-age generation as well. On Thursday or Friday evenings you may even bump into Bucquoy.
21 May in Belgium used to be the day for Bucquoy’s mock “Coup d’état”. There’s no need for that at the moment, as Belgium has no elected government, no mandate for raising taxes, and for Bucquoy, things are working rather well. So his focus is on future projects: touring the Musée du Slip to New York or London; sending out another 1000 letters to solicit new exhibits; directing the second part
of his film “Camping Cosmos” (which will again feature Noël Godin, perhaps the original and most successful “entarteur” ever – cream pie throwing tormenter of public figures such as Bill Gates and Bernard-Henri Lévy). But, Bucquoy grins, “I always come back to the pants.”
De Dolle Mol is open Wednesday to Sunday from 16:00
Rue des Eperonniers 52, 1000 Brussels
Google map: bit.ly/p96Qus
* Bec is our Been there local for Brussels. You can view her profile here: www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/articles/brussels-local-rebecca.jsp and follow her tips here: www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/travellers/Becinbrussels
This airy former textile warehouse designed by Victor Horta was saved from sad decline and converted into an exhibition space and research centre. Adult enthusiasts of the bande dessinée will enjoy a couple of hours studying the various displays, showcasing different illustration techniques derived from etching, photography and pastel and acrylic painting. Pick up a folder at the ticket desk with information in English on the artists and exhibits.
There’s a series of pictureboards from the museum archives and a study library, reading room, brasserie and well-stocked bookshop. The centre organises themed guided tours, workshops and temporary exhibitions; but if, like me, you didn't grow up with bande dessinée on your shelves, you could probably do with some more interactive illustrator demonstrations or Tintins to clamber over. Currently it’s not really a place for young children or those of us with limited attention spans!
www.comicscenter.net/en/home
20 rue des Sables (Zandstraat), 1000 Brussels
+ 32 (0)2 219 19 80
Google map: bit.ly/qsUJSN
Rebecca is our Been there local for Brussels. You can read her page and tips here: www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/articles/brussels-local-rebecca.jsp.
She has her own blog at: www.becinbrussels.blogspot.com
The Cantillon Brewery is the last of what were once plentiful Gueuze Breweries in Belgium. The family brewery makes Gueuze, a unique beer that depends entirely on windborn yeast to complete the beermaking process, introducing an element of luck that most brewmasters wouldn't dream of accepting. To use the wild yeast the brewery has a number of unique features that cannot be found in any other brewery.
The location is also ideal. Just a fifteen minute walk from Brussels' Grand Place, there is no problem with imbibing as much of this wonderful beer as you would like and then wondering how to get home. The metro public transport system makes this a wonderfully tasty and safe experience.
Gheudestraat 56
1070 Anderlecht, Anderlecht
02 521 49 28
www.cantillon.be
Google map: tinyurl.com/l6jal2
Only 10 minutes walk from the Gare du Midi, down a (frankly rather unprepossessing) street, is the Cantillon Brewery. This is an independent family-owned brewery producing lambic, one of Belgium's most authentic and original beers. You get a short and enthusiastic introduction, and can then follow the brewing process on your own.
What makes lambic beer unique is that it ferments spontaneously. The wort cools down in a shallow copper tray in the attic where it comes into contact with airborne wild yeasts.
You can wander through the barrel store, with its heady and musty aromas, where it will ferment for up to three years. Tasting is an education. You will be offered the slightly tart Gueuze, a blend of old and new lambics, and the sweeter Kriek beers, blended with fruit.
This is a fascinating and evocative museum, offering a rare insight into traditional brewing methods.
Gheudestraat 56
1070 Anderlecht, Anderlecht
02 521 49 28
www.cantillon.be
Google map: tinyurl.com/l6jal2
A really fun - and tasty - tour of a unique brewery can be found in the gritty working class Brussels district of Anderlecht, where some of Brussels' best kept secrets are also hidden!
The Musee Bruxellois de la Geuze offers a great tour around the Cantillon Brewery, the last working brewer of Lambic, a strange spontaneously-fermenting beer, that has to be tasted to be believed and once tasted will be craved ever after! It takes Lambic brews from three different years to make a Geuze beer, so it's something pretty special and well worth waiting for!
The Cantillon Brewery opened in 1900 and little has changed since then. It is a great retreat from the modern world to an age when people had more time to sit back and enjoy a glass of beer.
We loved the tour but got a little confused, after tasting and sampling, about all the processes and spontaneous fermentation, so we might have to go again to refresh the memory - hic.
Musee Bruxellois de la Geuze
Cantillon Brewery
Admission: 5euros (includes a cold glass of beer)
Cantillon Brewery
56 rue Gheude
Anderlecht
1070 Brussels
Metro: Gare du Midi or Clemenceau
Tel: +32 (0)2 521 4928
www.cantillon.be
Open Mon-Fri 08.30--17.00, Sat 10.00--17.00
Google map: tinyurl.com/l6jal2
Pop over to the Royal Museum for Central Africa and the Geographic Arboretum in Tervuren - it's the best green space in Brussels.
Then head to "Het Park"in the town square for fantastic cuisine.
www.africamuseum.be/
Leuvensesteenweg 13 3080 Tervuren, Belgium
Google map: tinyurl.com/mrk8s6
Surprisingly, the centre of Brussels has probably the best interactive playground/museum to indulge your inner child or just the kids.
Scentastic is located underground at the Bourse metro/tram stop, and is just a couple of minutes walk from the Grand Place.
Once you’ve found the understated entrance (difficult, even if you know it’s there) you enter what looks like a large romper room/playground, all primary colours and play equipment.
Scientastic will then amaze and educate through its use of simple psychological, physiological perception experiments.
Virtually everything is hands on and a simple explanation leaflet can explain some of the impossible thing you encounter.
Try to arrive just as they open as usually a multi-lingual member of staff will perform a series of moves in front of a mirror.
Then go and play and explore at your leisure, it can and should take at least a couple of hours, adults will at least be surprised and kids just love it.
scientastic.com/
Boulevard Anspach 72-73, 1000 Brussels
Google map: tinyurl.com/ry3ouq
The Museum of Chocolate on the Grand Place is well worth a visit, complete with free samples!
Recommend all visitors to check out the Théâtre de Toone - an atmospheric and authentic puppet theatre that transcends language and uplifts any visit to the city
A unique museum, ten minutes walk from Brussels Midi, is the Cantillon Brewery, which is a museum dedicated to Brussels' unique beer style of gueze. There are self-guided tours and the chance to try the products. But the highlight is the public brewings in November and March - a must for all beer lovers and fans of the Belgian way of life.
Brussels Tram Museum (www.trammuseumbrussels.be) runs a historic tram ride through the city on Sunday mornings. It's a great way to see an unusual side of the city - and at €12 per person, it's cheap too.
Make the effort and head out to the Musee van Buuren on Avenue Leo Errera. This delightful art deco residence was owned by a prominent banker and is full of art treasures from around the world. The gardens are breathtaking and you can claim to have visited half of the Belgian mazes open to the public ... not sure where the other one is!
Don't miss the wonderful Art Nouveau architecture. Apart from the Musee Horta, check out the Marie Louise and Ambiorix squares and also Maison de Paul Cauchie in Rue de Francs, just outside the Parc du Cinquantenaire.
The Atomium, built as part of Belgium's Expo 1958, is a must visit for anyone interested in 1950s technology. You can travel by lift and on elevators running through 18-metre aluminium tubes rising 102 metres in the air for a city-wide view from this oversize iron crystal atom!
Take tram 81 or 92 to the Horta Museum at 25 rue Americaine. Not only does it house the world's finest collection of Art Nouveau design, but it is in a very quiet and elegant residential district with neighbourhood bars and restaurants.
Visit the Atomium, an amazing piece of architecture shaped like an atom and affording beautiful views over the city of Brussels!
For all lovers of ale and beer, a visit to Le Musée de la Bière à Schaerbeek (33-35 Avenue Louis Bertrand: 1000) is a must. Here you can see beer being treated with true reverence and sample some of the specialities of the area.
We went specifically to see art nouveau architecture, but it proved rather elusive until we bought a 'Five Art Nouveau tours around Bruxelles' walking map at the Horta museum. This made everything accessible, and gave excellent summaries of art-nouveau style, museums, and brief notes on hundreds of buildings.
Visit Brussels on the first weekend in the month, when the wonderful Cauchie house is open, but be prepared for an enthusiastic and lengthy address in French!
All the the main -isms of 20th century art.
Opening hours: daily, 10:00 - 13:00, 14:00 - 17:00
Admission fee: 5 EUR
Koningsplein 1-2, Place Royale, 1000 Brussels.
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