Visiting Brussels
A visit north affirms our choice of Montpellier
Carolyn and I had the opportunity to visit good friends in Brussels recently. Christoper and Martin are gracious, fun-loving hosts and they always show us the best of any place we visit. Honestly, we mostly just like spending time with people who spoil their dogs even more than we do.
The train ride from Montpellier to Brussels was surprisingly easy; it took a total of 6 hours which included about an hour in Paris where we had to take the subway from Gare de l’Est to Gare du Nord. It was lucky we had an hour because we spent a lot of time wandering from screen to screen perplexed as to why our train was the only one not showing up on the departures list. Exasperated, we finally exited the underground labyrinth and walked to the main entrance. Voilà , there was our train!
Brussels is a huge city compared to Montpellier (Brussels has roughly 2.2 million people). Our friend Christopher tried to pick us up at the train station, but construction work had made such a mess of traffic that he finally gave up and asked apologetically if we wouldn’t mind getting a taxi. Unfortunately, it was rush hour, and with the construction, the taxi took about forty minutes to go all of four miles. Welcome back to the big city!
The following day, our hosts had arranged for a walking tour of the city with an absolutely stellar guide who explained how the economic engine of Belgium has changed over time, and also how political control of the region had shifted hands through the various royal families over the centuries. She made connections between that shifting control and the lack of a cohesive identity for the residents of Brussels. She proposed that the resulting lack of a solid national identity had contributed to the city’s chaotic planning and to their willingness to tear down large sections of the city to make way for new projects. Examples abound: the Palace of Justice built in the late 19th century, the covering of the river Seine 1911-1952, new development for the World’s Fair in 1958, and work associated with Brussels becoming the seat of EU government and NATO.
Brussels reminded me of Houston, TX, where they also have lax/non-existent zoning laws and one might see a single family home with a fenced yard next to a fifteen story hospital. I was introduced to a new word, Brusselisation: the indiscriminate and careless introduction of modern high-rise buildings into gentrified neighbourhoods, haphazard urban development, and redevelopment. I checked in with a former professor who is better versed in urban planning than I, and he didn’t know the word either!
The tour included a short walk in a gated area that was still as it would have been in the early 19th century, with brick buildings and open canals.
We visited a few stunning gothic cathedrals including St. Michael & Saint Gudula Cathedral which is in a style known as Brabant Gothic. It has been thirty years since my class on the history of gothic architecture, but the most noticeable variation in style was the absence of a large rosette window at the end of the nave.
We also visited some excellent examples of restored brick and cast iron buildings and a newly restored building that used to be a stock exchange but was now a retail and event space.
On our second day in Brussels, Carolyn had a lunch date with a writing colleague so I had a few hours on my own. I walked around looking at the older buildings and the odd juxtapositions of new and old, thinking about the walking tour we had done the day before. I took a closer look at a few art nouveau buildings that had been pointed out to me the day before. To my taste, art nouveau is better suited to posters, stair railings, lamp posts, and banjo inlays than to buildings. There, I said it! I’m sure I’ll get pushback.
I headed back to the hotel. Carolyn had booked us a night in a cool place in the center of town. I stopped on the way to purchase rum filled chocolate balls at Elisabeth Chocolatier - I had made note of it the day before when they handed us delicious samples of the rum balls as our group lingered at the shop window.
As I post this, I’m kicking myself for not realizing they also have whiskey-filled chocolate balls! I passed through the Grand Place on my way back to the hotel where a large demonstration in support of the Palestinian people was taking shape. The demonstration eventually filled the square and we could hear the chanting and noise from our hotel room. When we passed through the square on our way to dinner a few hours later the square was immaculately clean and full of tourists as ususal; you’d never know such a large demonstration had taken place.
That night was our anniversary, and we had dinner reservations at Les Petits Oignons. On the way to the restaurant we had a drink at a small bar where the group sitting next to us had two sweet dogs under the table. One was quick to put his head in Carolyn’s lap. (On your anniversary, it’s nice to have a dog confirm you made a good choice in a partner.)
Dinner was great but we were distracted by our waiter who had the air of a Bond villain complete with shaved head, sputtering laugh, and a discomfiting smile that reminded me of Major Toht from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
The visit was just the right length and it confirmed a few things for us about our decision to make Montpellier our new home:
The size of Montpellier feels more comfortable to us, that’s partly about scale and population but also about a few other things that we took note of in our visit to Brussels.
We realized on the taxi ride from the train station that we hadn’t thought or talked about traffic in months! We actively sought out a place where we could live car free and it was a good decision; when I do find myself thinking that the streets will be crowded (on a sunny Saturday afternoon, for instance) I’m thinking about walking on streets full of pedestrians, not sitting in traffic.
Montpellier is a modern city, it has a thriving tech sector, excellent trains, universities, and hospitals, but they’ve also done a great job of preserving the historic section of town. We aren’t worried that there’s going to suddenly be a glass skyscraper next door.
There’s a civility here that still surprises me. In Brussels, I witnessed an ugly incident where an older guy used a racist slur when arguing with a young woman. She called him on it immediately and a few of us bystanders quickly stepped in to get them moving in different directions and to make sure the young woman was okay. I’m sure those attitudes still exist in Montpellier, but I haven’t run into it yet. The most aggressive thing I’ve experienced in Montpellier is a dirty look from a guy who bumped my shoulder as we were moving through a store entrance. I’ve grown so accustomed to the sincere and friendly pardon! or excusez-moi! that accompanies such incidents that I was completely taken aback by an angry look.
Tourists vs. residents: Montpellier certainly has its share of tourists passing through but it’s nothing like Brussels. I like that the old part of town in Montpellier still has shops that support locals who live in the neighborhood - fruit stands, grocers, pharmacies, boulangeries, and small restaurants at a variety of price-points. Brussels felt very tourist-oriented in the historic areas and I would swear that every third door is a chocolatier!
Thanks again to Martin and Christopher.
Jusqù’a la prochaine fois (until next time),
Roberto & Carolyn
I’ll be coming to Montpellier in May to explore a bit and really appreciated this post. I’ve been fretting over picking MPL as my first choice and wondering if I should go to Nice also. Your blog has been so helpful to me in getting a feel for the place.
That first photo with the dogs looks like some kind of mist or apparition (with a smiling dog face?) is clouding over the little table... (I watch too many paranormal shows, but wanted to point it out.) Could be something on the lens, perhaps? Or humidity? But interesting...