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The
European Parliament has found its ideal home in Brussels (Bruxelles in French,
Brussel in Flemish). This inland capital city of Belgium, bordered by The
Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg and France, is a multi-cultural and
multi-lingual city at the very heart of the EU. Indeed, it claims with some
justification to be the 'Capital of Europe'.
Belgium
celebrated its 175th anniversary of statehood during 2005, but the history of
the nation's capital goes back much further. Brussels was already a thriving
trade centre by the Middle Ages. The Bruxellois have inherited the wisdom of
ancestors who lived under Roman, Spanish, Austrian, French, Dutch and German
domination – their country winning independence only in 1830. Today, Brussels
boasts a highly skilled and adaptable workforce. Despite the population of
Belgium numbering only 10.2 million, with Brussels itself just under a
million-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 offbeat 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 approach to life is also manifest in the Belgian love
affair with the comic strip, popularised worldwide with Hergé's boy hero,
Tintin.
Language
is a complex and serious issue in bilingual (French and Flemish) Brussels, as
well as being a focus of communal tensions, more of which surfaced in the early
part of 2005. 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 also 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 sky scraping 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. It would be difficult to find a more beautiful square in the whole
of Europe. Bars, restaurants and museums are clustered within the compact city
centre, enclosed within the petit ring, which follows the path of the
14th-century city walls.
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 congregates in the Marolles district, in the shadow of the
Palais de Justice, although this area is on the up-and-up. New immigrant
communities are settling in the rundown area around the Gare du Nord.
Neighbouring communes, St-Gilles and Ixelles, draw an arty crowd with their
'in' shops and restaurants. These are worth the trek, if only to glimpse some
of Brussels' finest Art Nouveau buildings, the style developed by Bruxellois
Victor Horta, the son of a shoemaker.
With
a pleasant temperate climate (warm summers and mild winters) and a host of
sights and delights to entertain, Brussels offers the visitor a great deal more
than just beer and chocolate (although excelling in both).
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