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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
A stunning view from my living room, when I was living in Brussels, Belgium. This lasted for less than 5 minutes!
As you know, the European Parliament has found an ideal home in Brussels. This capital city of Belgium, bordered by The Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg and France, it is a multicultural and multilingual city at the heart of Europe.
Despite the population of Belgium numbering only 10.2 million, with Brussels itself just some 970,000-strong, the Bruxellois have the ability to compensate for their small numbers with skilled diplomacy, compromise and negotiation. These striking traits are followed closely by a highly intellectual and off-beat sense of humour, underpinned by a strong sense of the bizarre. This may help explain why the Surrealist art movement, pioneered by René Magritte, took off in Brussels. A playful and irreverent reaction to life is also revealed in the Belgian love affair with the comic strip, popularised worldwide with Hergé’s boy hero, Tintin.
Language is a complex issue in bilingual (French and Flemish) Brussels. Some 85% of native Bruxellois speak French as their first language. Ironically, Brussels is also capital of Flemish-speaking Flanders. However, the fierce linguistic debate takes a lighter form, with constant puns and word games forming a complex web. For instance, while a top-notch restaurant is called Comme Chez Soi (Just Like Home), a less prestigious establishment calls itself Comme Chez Moi (Just Like My Home), with more than a twist of irony.
Yet the image of the city suffers abroad, due to its very diversity, as well as the self-effacing nature of its quirky inhabitants, too modest to blow their own trumpet. Brussels has no symbol to rival the skyscraping Eiffel Tower, aside from the tiny but famed Manneken-Pis, a statuette of a urinating boy.
The first visit to Brussels, uncoloured by expectations, is therefore all the more rewarding. Narrow cobbled streets open suddenly into the breathtaking Grand-Place, with its ornate guild houses, impressive Town Hall and buzzing atmosphere. The medieval city is clearly defined by its narrow, labyrinthine streets, making it easy to distinguish the later additions, such as Léopold II’s Parisian-style boulevards – Belliard and La Loi – today lined with embassies, banks and the grand apartments of the bourgeoisie and close to the glitzy new EU quarter. The working class still congregate in the Marolles district, in the shadow of the Palais de Justice, although this area is on the up-and-up.
With a pleasant temperate climate – warm summers and mild winters – and a host of sights and delights to entertain, Brussels offers far more than just beer and chocolate (although excelling in both). The year 2003 marked the city’s celebration of its cultural diversity – from its rich architecture to native hero and lyrical singer Jacques Brel. |
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