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This festival, every July, celebrates Belgian Independence Day in great style.The party goes on for over a week. There is every sort of music from reggae to folk to classical both indooor and on outdoor stages, with buskers and street entertainers.
The city has a wealth of museums, galleries and old churches. There's something for all ages. And most of the music is free! There's a variety of places to eat and stay.
Eurostar to Brussels, then a short local train ride.Theres a city tram network; the local information office sells a city pass for use on the trams which includes entry to all the museums and galleries.
An artisanal bakery which boasts quality breads and cakes almost too beautiful to eat. There are various different breads to try, from traditional baguettes to olive, walnut, apricot and hazelnut; but I’m told that once they’ve found one they like customers tend to stick with it. Even the Neptune restaurant I’ve featured before buys its own particular type of loaf from here. The bread is made upstairs and allowed to rise 24 hours before baking. It’s a process that takes time and space, but here production is limited by the premises rather than number of personnel. So after 26 years with the shop and atelier in the same building, the Saint-Aulaye has just moved to a new building which has the same surface area, but will no longer require its 12 pâtissiers to traispse up and down four flights of stairs.
www.saintaulaye.be/
Rue Vanderkindere, 377, 1180 Uccle
Google map: bit.ly/Qr1Sex
“Photo? Of course, je vous en prie!” He says, as he hands me my box of strawberry and raspberry tarts. “Everyone in Brussels knows about this atelier”, he adds. “Oh?” I say. I hadn’t known, and I only wish I’d been told about this place earlier – it has been here for 60 years, after all. Now there’s no need for that sinking feeling as you plod home after a late night at the office and remember that the fridge is bare, or wonder what to eat after an impromptu gathering leaves you unexpectedly drunk and ravenous!
Here’s what I suggest: head down the long corridor that opens out into the cavernous atelier, weigh yourselves on the huge and antique scales. So that’s 20 bags of flour…. Re-emerge from there. Enjoy some beers and frites in the bars around Place Jourdan. Return several hours later for bread, rolls, croissants or tarts. Weigh yourselves again. From Midnight the cocoa-buttery smell of fresh pain au chocolat will waft down the corridor to entice you in – for this is the hour of the first fresh pastries of the day. What a great idea in a land where supermarkets generally close at 8pm! Open every day from 19:00 to 7:00. From 7:00 the actual bakery on the square takes over, but that is not so much fun.
Rue Général Leman, 8 1040 Etterbeek
Google map: bit.ly/VjxshK
Garcia’s tearoom is packed on a Sunday morning, but in the adjoining blue and white tiled bakery business is slower and you can call in and pick up your sweet Portuguese pastries at any time. On a quieter weekday morning I had my first sampling of savoury Portuguese treats in the tearoom – including mini shrimp croquettes, cod and chicken pastries. Now I’m hooked, but that’s okay
because I can still have one of everything available and it will still be as cheap as Belgian chips.
The owner is from Lavre in Southern Portugal, but left to see the world. To remind him of home, and us of sunnier Mediterranean climes, we sit next to a recreated façade of his house, happily caffeinating ourselves. Hearing Portuguese spoken on the terraces around Place Flagey, it seems like a large proportion of Brussels’ Portuguese community must have settled in this area, but no, they’re everywhere, says the guy serving my pastries. What a lovely language, and what lovely pastries!
Avenue de la Couronne, 75- 77, 1050 Ixelles
Google map: bit.ly/VjwfXv
No need to walk far from the Sablon square to find an inexpensive place to eat: for a start there’s the Parrot just off the square – ideal for lunch or as a prelude to a night out. Here the speciality is pitta, 72 different types of pitta on my last count. These come in baskets cradled in the nook of the server’s arm, and are deceptively filling – if you disagree you can just order another. There’s scope to have vegetarian, salads and pittas with dried fruit and nuts - all proving that pittas don’t have to be unhealthy or predictable. You get four different sauces to dribble on your pitta, and insufficient
napkins, but never mind. Some of the contents are liable to escape, scattering themselves
mischievously, making mess! Enjoy in a graceful bar of art nouveau swirls, turquoisey walls and
unpolished marble table tops. For 10 euro for a pitta and freshly squeezed juice you can’t really go wrong. Well-known but still a nice mix of exchange students, local couples and groups. Everyone gets a lollipop with the bill: we wouldn’t want to disturb this genteel Sablon neighbourhood afterwards, would we? And just a short hop from the rum bar I mentioned earlier.
31, rue Watteau, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
+32(0)2 512 99 22
Google map: bit.ly/NkyhTF
* 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
First ensure you’ve had a couple of kwak beers in their proper glass, then head upstairs to Toone’s theatre with its puppets dangling from the eaves, take your place on the bench – and be prepared to not understand very much. Fear not though, this is normal. This is Bruxellois.
This time it is an adaptation of Hamlet, transported to the backstreets and canal of Brussels. There is a bit of hanky panky between King and Queen, a regal ghost burning his bottom on the fires of purgatory, and someone has caught the “English” flu. Sitting near the front you can appreciate the arms behind the artifice: 7 young puppeteers are needed to perform the show, and the lead puppeteer (Toone VIII) is also ticketmaster, barman and answerer of baffled-tourist questions.
“To be or not to be: that is the cwestion…” We’ll say this in English, that way everyone can say they didn’t understand a thing”, says one of the characters. But perhaps this Bruxellois dialect isn’t so tricky after all. There’s a spuuk in this play, you know, and a snotneus, and a stoemmeriek (stupid person). Mostly performances are in French Bruxellois, but once a week you can try Flemish Bruxellois (and be even more confused). The dialect survives mostly as a strong accent and vocabulary: you’re most likely to hear it amongst the older generation and Flemish speakers.
In the interval, you can drink yet more beer amongst retired 30 year old puppets in the tiny museum-cum-bar. Meanwhile I’m mulling over a line from the performance, “Justice is a snail. It will come in its own time.”
Performances at 20:30, and at 16:00 and 20:30 on Saturdays.
Check online to see what is playing, and reserve places online or by telephone a couple of days beforehand if you can.
www.toone.be/
Impasse Sainte-Pétronille, Rue du Marché-aux-Herbes 66, 1000 Brussels
+32 2 513 54 86
Google map: bit.ly/PYFjRD
* 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
I stand in front of the lines of bottles at La Canne à Sucre and take stock. Once again I am in the presence of copious quantities of rum. But here no bottle appears the same, all are superior quality, and after 30 years they are jostling for space in the nursery. Children have grown up and moved on, but the rum will stay and probably last forever - the owner is even writing a book on the subject.
Jean-Claude and Christiane’s rum bar behind Place Sablon is a loving homage to several years spent in the French Antilles: banana plants, banana leaves, unobtrusive steel pan music and a glowing fruit-adorned bar. There is a food menu that features recipes from Martinique, Réunion, Guadeloupe and Mauritius, but more than anything it features rum.
But first, Christiane suggests I try an aperitif. She hands me the drinks menu and leaves me to peruse it for some while. There are 250 cocktails to choose from: enough for weeks (years?) of cocktail drinking.
While we sip our delicate creations and allow the rum to creep up on us, Jean-Claude is cooking. Not the intriguingly-named “poisson à la sauce chien” this time; but parrotfish in a creole sauce of lime and coconut milk, and the same fish prepared in absinthe. Not only do these turn out to be delicious, but it is also the first time I’ve eaten such a photogenic fish.
Our chef is an experimenter. He tells us he’s currently trying out a variation of the staple deep-fried Belgian croquette, but with chicken inside and accompanied by a mango sweet and sour sauce. “I tried it out on my friends”, he says. We nod encouragingly and say it sounds good. “Yes, that’s what I thought”, he muses.
Later on Friday and Saturday nights, Jean-Claude sheds his chef’s clothes for something more comfortable, and joins in with the group of musicians and drums in the corner. Fridays and Saturdays from around 10:30pm is the time to pitch up: there’s no need to eat, just pick a cocktail (at random?) and make the most of it all. A place that should appeal to everybody!
www.lacanneasucre.be
Rue des Pigeons 12, 1000, Bruxelles
+32 0475 472023
Google map: bit.ly/LL1U2X
* 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
Whisper the words “cocktail bar” and probably associations of classy, candlelit establishments, muted pianos and mojitos will come to mind. There are plenty of cool-kid places in the Saint-Géry area which will mix you a pretty decent cocktail, catering for the tastes of 20 and 30 somethings who flood this area, seeking beer and more. A few strides from all of these bars is Coaster. It has peeling brown walls, candles tilting precariously from rum bottles and an operating table light casting a dim glow over proceedings. You could say this is a cultivated neglected look, as if the squatters have moved in and the Bar Police haven’t the time or inclination to evict them. The clientele doesn’t mind about roug decor and approximate spirit measurements, which anyway still produce good results.
We are generally young, cradling glass shakers protectively as we huddle around copper- topped tables. Meanwhile, the pulsing 90s dance mix is discouraging us from lapsing into conversation (even on a Monday), and why would we want deep conversations anyway while the blackboard has a list of around 40 cocktails to peruse, a twitchy dancing barman, and the television in the corner, inexplicably showing an evening chat show with my least favourite person on French channels, Laurent Ruquier. Every day between 20:00 and 23:00 except the day of rest, Coaster offers the appealing prospect of two 10cl or 15cl shakers for the price of one - it’s Happy Hour seemingly for most of the time the bar is open, or at least the hours when you’re most likely to want to frequent it. Well, I exaggerate: I haven’t yet hung out here until 6am! But I have slunk into the office wearing my hangover in a secret smile. Like a proper self-respecting Belgian bar, Jupiler is on tap. And of course the cocktails (be they mojitos, jet sets or teddy bears) are generous and colourful. And definitely not wimpish.
Rue des riches Claires/ Rijke Klarenstraat 28,
1000 Brussels
Google map: bit.ly/KCw1bM
With its sparkling lights, 24 carat gilding and huge wall mirror at the back it seems like Le Greenwich goes on forever. And now, freshly reopened and gleaming after a costly renovation, it just might.
For too long this historic bar had wallowed in its own smoky grime, trading on its reputation of years of epic chess matches, rumours of original tiled bathrooms, and its most famous customer, René Magritte. Coming back I’m astonished at the transformation: it’s almost too new, and so shiny that Magritte would probably not recognise it. It’s certainly no longer a place where I can imagine any scruffy artist at the window trying to sell paintings. I haven’t yet spotted any chess players, either.
It took a private Dutch investor and some regional subsidies to finally save this listed building from leaks and bring it up to modern standards. Sitting in here you feel like a drinker in the first class lounge on the Titanic. I’m told by one of the waiters that Magritte used to sit in the right hand window viewed from outside - in any case, that table is always occupied! Drink one - drink three - but I think the food is better elsewhere - best to head next door for that (or try one of the many other restaurants nearby).
Rue des Chartreux 7, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium
+32 2 511 41 67
Google map: bit.ly/Ksb0N5
* 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
One of the largest film collections in Europe, complete with library, archives, three theatres and six or seven screenings daily. No wonder the man responsible for all that, Nicola Mazzanti, is uneasy.
“It’s better to be the last than the first”, he says, referring to the new and unknown challenges of digital film preservation; “and in Belgium, we’re at the avant garde of problems!” Of the 70,000 individual titles, some are holding up well, but some are in dire need of conservation, and staff can only restore about 100 of those a year. Amongst these titles can be found most, if not all, of Belgian film history and elements of US and international film history that are unique, spanning the period from 1896 to the present.
It falls to Nicola to ensure that the vast collection is accessible to the public, and in Cinematek’s bewildering offering contemporary, experimental and classics are all catered for. This Summer you can catch popular French cinema from the 1960s, lesser known Danish cinema and a scattering of films starring Jean-Paul Belmondo. Silent films have featured ever since Cinematek was founded in 1938; and these are always accompanied by a live pianist. There are also plans to screen films to orchestral accompaniment. Be warned that films are always shown in the original language with subtitles in French and Dutch! In between all of these screenings, researchers and enthusiasts can visit the reference library to seek out some obscure title, book or poster – consult the online
catalogue or email the staff in advance so they can check they have it and can extract it for you.
As for me, watching puzzling films in the Cinematek will be all the more appealing now I know about the mysterious strip-lit bunker, where miles upon miles of films are coiled up waiting in drums. 140,000 of them is something like the correct figure, including feature films each around 3000 metres long. “It’s a resource management problem”, sighs Nicola. Films are unstable and need to be stored somewhere cold and dry; “which is not easy, because cold is usually not dry.”
www.cinematek.be
Baron Hortastraat 9, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
+32(0)2 551 19 19
Google map: bit.ly/IPAVkZ
* 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
Tucked away on a side street behind Place Flagey you could easily walk past this wine seller and bar because from the outside it resembles a lock-up garage, whose shutters only rise Thursday to Saturday. Perhaps this is a ruse to deter noisy crowds in other bars nearby: I for one wouldn’t want to see this place lose its intimacy! A small group of people know to come on Friday and Saturday nights for ringside seats at concerts of gypsy music. “We never know quite who’s going to turn up; I don’t think even the Patron knows” says a double bassist cum guitarist. Most of the musicians are Hungarians who have been living in Belgium for many years, playing violin, guitar and cimbalom.
When he is not on tour, they are joined by whiskered virtuoso violinist Roby Lakatos , who keeps us all transfixed with his nimble bow work and finger plucking frenzy, while my poor tapping feet can barely keep up. In Lakatos’ hands the violin is variously a percussion instrument, a guitar and mandolin, and he weaves traditional gypsy tunes and then surprises us all with a variation of “La vie en rose”. A good selection of wines is available by the glass or bottle, and there are tapas and desserts so you won’t go hungry. You can be sure that everyone: staff, players, customers, folk dancer, will be having a good time.
If you’re too early for the concert soak up a beer – and witness Brussels’ Bohemian, alternative side at bar Le Murmure, no.18.
www.dapvins.be/index.php
Open Thursday to Saturday from 17:00
14, rue du Belvédère/ Belvédèrestraat, 1050, Brussels
+32(0)2 640 56 10
Google map: bit.ly/H56Pox
* 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
I was looking for authentic cowboy boots; I didn’t expect to find so many of them quite so close to home. But then I hadn’t counted on finding a Western Man in Brussels, either.
François Chladiuk’s Western Shop grew out of a life’s passion for the Wild West.
This collector of the “real McCoy” started with antique Winchesters 40 years ago, adding
statues and saddles before a chance opportunity led to him acquiring 150 pieces that had languished in a basement for decades, including vibrant Indian headdresses, tunics, moccasins and jewellery. He suspected they were old, and placed adverts in magazines and tried to track down photos of the period. One day, while looking at a postcard, he realised he had a match. “I was shaking, I ran upstairs and compared it. And there it was!” From the few surviving photographs of the period, he discovered he owned clothing and artefacts that had belonged to the Little Elk and Little Moon families who had performed in the Wild West Shows for the Brussels World Fair in 1935. Since then Francois’s whole collection has been displayed at Belgium’s Royal Museum for Art and History, and pieces have been loaned to The Buffalo Bill museum in Golden, Colorado. A few pieces are currently ondisplay in that same Brussels museum.
22 years ago François started his shop, still with his collection in mind, selling the “real hats, the real boots and the real shirts.” The brands featured are 120 or 130 years old, including Tony Lama, which last year celebrated its 100th anniversary. This place is about as far removed from a western superstore as you can imagine. Wooden floors, country music in the background and the inescapable smell of leather. Among the Stetsons, jewellery and shirts I ask him what he is most proud of. Unsurprisingly it is the inventory of 2500 pairs of cowboy boots, including the traditional or the colourful, amongst exotic skins such as shark, lizard, python, hippo or stingray. To keep the shop well-stocked, Francois flies to the States five times a year, taking in the Denver show in January and September, which has “everything”, and twice visiting Tulse, Oklohoma, for collectables from the “biggest gun show on earth”. Then it’s either the Cody show or the High Noon show in Phoenix for antiques. Distances and unloading aside, there is no “work” involved in running this shop. “At 38 I opened, and at 38 I stopped working!
“Every ten or 12 years there is like a Western fashion wave coming all over the world.
My friends say; ‘You must be lucky now, you must be happy! Now you’re making a lot
of money.’ But it’s just not true”, he says. Those are the times of cheap imitations and dreamcatchers, not the “real McCoy”.
“Is it because my father was liberated by Americans that I became interested in the Wild
West?” Perhaps there’s something to that, but after a childhood of playing Cowboys and
Indians and his recent discovery of a Little Moon descendant in Wounded Knee, Francois’ enthusiasm shows no sign of waning. He has amassed memorabilia relating to the Wild West shows that took place in Belgium, and to the founder of those shows, Buffalo Bill. Can he bring himself to sell anything from his treasured collection? Once, he sold a 7ft by 6ft portrait of Buffalo Bill. “That’s enormous”, I say. It took six men to lift it, but that was not the main reason it had to go: François had moved to a house with lower ceilings, and, as he put it, “I didn’t want Buffalo Bill’s head – down there!”
Every Buffalo Bill and Wild West enthusiast should pay Brussels’ Western Man a visit. And I’ll be back for his boots.
www.westernshop.be
79, Boulevard Adolphe Max, 1000 Brussels
+32 (0)2 219 55 17
Google map: bit.ly/wsPVWL
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
You’ll need to arrive earlier than the Spanish to ensure a table and tapas in this thriving,
buzzy Asturian community centre, open Friday to Sunday evenings and staffed by volunteers for the last 20 years. Inside older community members prop up the bar, and tables of Spanish speakers alternate with other nationalities, all happily gorging on generous plates of gambas, ham, cheese, sardines and calamares – washed down with beer for 1 euro or Asturian cider, poured from a great height to get the air into it. Past the bar with its photos of landscapes and Asturians proudly wielding their prize-winning cabrales cheese, the centro gives way to a village hall atmosphere, complete with functional tables and plastic chairs. Last time I was convinced our table of seven had over-done it: we’d ordered nearly everything on the menu, twice! But we still managed to finish everything – and three bottles of rioja - for the princely sum of 20 euros per head.
Open Friday and Saturday evenings and for lunch on Sunday.
www.centrocabraliego.net
171 rue Haute/Hoogstraat, 1000 Brussels
+32 (0)2 511 05 59
Google map: bit.ly/ysbmVR
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
No, seriously, it can be done! The Belgian Ardennes is a beautiful region that so many people just drive by without a thought. Several towns have their own small downhill slope and there are miles of cross-country trails through the forests. While the snow is never guaranteed, when it comes it can be in prodigious quantities and of a quality that would stand up to scrutiny anywhere. Just don't expect groomed pistes, and ski early in the day before the Dutch arrive from across the border. When there's no snow, enjoy the walks on the moors (the 'Hautes Fagnes'), sampling the mineral springs, watching the wildlife and trying the local food (often the same thing).
Stay in the eponymous Spa, with its curative waters, and try Thiers des Rexhons www.skispa.be/
Route de Berinzenne - Thier des Rexhons
B- 4900 SPA
+32 90)87 77 30 28
Google map: bit.ly/yjDqA2
Or Mont des Brumes
www.montdesbrumes.be/fr/index.html
+32 80 78 54 13
The European Parliament's new visitor centre finally provides a place to visit about the European institutions.
Upon entering the exhibition you are given a personal media guide which can be in any of the 23 EU languages. You then use this tool to unlock a huge range of different interactive elements throughout the exhibition. My favourite part of the centre however, was the 360° film which lasted about 10 minutes and immersed us in the Parliament action, while finding out about how it all works.
Definitely something to take visiting friends to see! It also has a gift shop and cafeteria, which is a nice place to spend your Sunday afternoon.
www.europarl.europa.eu/parlamentarium
Rue Wiertz 60/ Wiertzstraat 60, B-1047 Brussels
Belgium
+3222832222
Google map: bit.ly/xpX5JD
From the outside, it has to be said, this grey- fronted bar with its forbidding doorman does not promise much. During the day people fill up on steak and carbonnades, soaking up beer with chips and just sit, placidly. But on Friday and Saturday nights groups start crowding in, and at a quarter to midnight, as if by some tacit agreement, everyone gets up on top of the tables to dance, to an infectious mix which could keep you going until 4am, providing you have the energy – and your wits – about you! Leave bulky bags and coats behind, and give up reaching the bar through the mass of bodies. It’s probably for the best anyway. A student favourite, and an exhilarating end to a day spent in chocolate, waffles and vin chaud.
www.lecorbeau.be/
18, rue St-Michel, 1000 Brussels
+32 2 219 52 46
Google map: bit.ly/AdUAUQ
* 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
Take refuge in Frederic’s shop, where you can revive flagging legs with a cup of rich hot chocolate. No instant stuff this; but basically just melted chocolate, including the speciality Fredericisime, with no sugar and just a little honey, that you might not like but will knock your socks off. Along with the large and imaginative chocolate selection there are hot chocolate spoons, chocolate spreads, and ice creams. I must try the “Belgian sunshine” - I like a chocolatier with a sense of humour!
www.frederic-blondeel.com/en/presentation/
Quai aux Briques/Baksteenkaai 24, 1000 Brussels
+32 2 502 21 31
Google map: bit.ly/x8SWpl
* 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
Founded in 1919 in Brussels, since 1942 Mary has been the chocolate supplier to the Belgian royal family. There are only three shops in the country, and the brand has
shunned expansion and stuck to its retro-style packing, discreet service and pralines named after Princesses past and present. This is about class, but there is nothing to be concerned about on price! Chocolates are still made by hand by around ten employees in a former armaments factory.
A browse through the brochure reveals that chocolates should be kept between 15 and 18 degrees, avoiding rapid changes in temperature. “In truth, however, our chocolates seem to disappear rather quickly.” You bet they do.
www.marychoc.com/
Rue Royal/Konigsstraat 73, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
+32 2 217 45 00
Google map: bit.ly/zyRZ1L
* 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
An after-dark venue that likes to think of itself as a bit of an oddity, Madame Moustache is a nightly parade of eclectic bands and shows – a cross between a cabaret and a village hall. One night it could be 80s kitsch, another night rockabilly, crazy Balkan or 50s jamboree. There’s probably nowhere else in Brussels quite like it. As for me, I like turning up fortnightly on a Tuesday to practise my lindy hop and Charleston steps to a live swing band; watching others in braces and bowler hats spin and shuffle in the mirrored walls, and ordering beers and cocktails from bar folk in sailor’s outfits.
www.madamemoustache.be/index.php
Quai au bois à brûler/Brandhoutkaai 5-7,
1000 Brussels
+32 485 53 44 94
Google map: bit.ly/tpW3Fm
* 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
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
Is this your business?