Wallonia

I've missed blogging. I cannot figure out what to blog about post-Brussels, though, so I'll go back to posting about our trip. We had a few awesome days I did not cover yet, despite being home for almost two weeks.

On Sunday, 7 August the four of us took the train to Liege, Belgium. It is in the Wallonia, more French-speaking, region of the country. While the rain in the forecast held off, it was quite breezy, a strange weather day, alternating between cloudy and nippy back to sunny and quite warm frequently. We started the day figuring out the bus to the historic city center and getting a helpful woman to guide us to La Batte, a huge flea market along the beautiful river. Common items at the market included cheeses, breads, sausages, sunglasses, socks, and scarves (one scarf purchased and modeled by me, approved by Lucy).

La Batte was super crowded which made us all testy. We eventually scraped together a lunch of cheese, pastries and bread and dined in the sheltered courtyard of a bonus museum, the Curtius Museum of Liege. Turned out all museums were free for the first Sunday of the month. This unplanned museum stop included some beautiful modern courtyard gardens tucked between the wings of a museum housing ancient weapons, antique bronze and pottery, archeological dig artifacts including bones, and some other historical exhibits about Liege. As we wandered around the city, I noticed the architecture was distinct from other places we'd been, with older, simpler looking buildings, including less ornate churches, some with a unique red trim but most in darker shades of stone and brick.

Throughout the original section of the city were scattered many tiny alleys, labeled Impasse [streetname]. I captured this image of a resident headed out from one. There were amazing homes and gardens tucked back along the impasses. Brian was enjoying exploring them while Julia had a tantrum because she suddenly did not want to walk anywhere. She almost walked up a mountain of stairs in a huff, but prematurely turned around. We dragged our reluctant eight-and-a-half year old (and a more chipper eleven year old) to the Museum of Wallonian Life, our first folklife museum on the trip. It was amazing, with so many little glimpses into everyday life in this region. Even Julia managed to cheer up eventually once she saw old scouting gear, vignettes of Wallonian rooms and antique toys.

After grabbing a beverage at an outdoor cafe near the Prince Bishops Palace, and seeking shelter inside from the gusty winds, we eventually found another bus over to the modern art museum. Housed in an old World Expo building on an island in the river, the collection was the perfect size and period.
After another drink and snack while listening to modern French rap/hip-hop music at the museum, we walked along and across the river back to the train station. Not sure if we'd catch the 5:00 train back to Brussels, we walked briskly, led by determined Julia, then ran, then caught the train which fortunately was a few minutes delayed.

I'd rate this as not our best day, but it ended very well with the wonderful modern art collection which was not too overwhelming in scale and offered many opportunities for learning and discussion.