La Roue school

I had La Roue school on my radar for quite some time. After all, it is a registered monument very close to our place, so it would be a shame not to visit it soon enough. It still took us a while to hunt it down, but thanks to that we managed to visit beautiful area of La Roue district. During that visit we saw the school from the outside.

I must admit when we first arrived there I was thinking "hmm... so this is it... I guess it must've been impressive at a time".

So it has some small decorative accents. The clock tower looks nice. But as far as to registering it as a monument? Oh well, I've seen worst things on the list... (forgive my ignorance, maybe it is in itself a gem of modernistic architecture, what do I know).

We took some pictures from the outside, including an old-school poster from 60.

More by accident than anything else we peeked in the inside and saw what was the real reason for a protection. That's why we decided to come back when the school is open. Before taking pictures inside though, we asked the direction nicely if that would be no problem (going around primary school taking pictures without introducing yourself might be not well seen).

As a side note, people seem to find it really hard to acknowledge, that we're doing it as a hobby. We've been already taken for historians, teachers and architects, and every time it takes time to make them truly believe that we consider what we do fun :)

Anyway, interior of the school hides a little gem being the stained glass work.

It is signed by the name of Fernand Crickx, who seem to have done quite some stained glass work all over Brussels. The building itself was designed by Henri Wildenblanck and constructed 1938.

The stained glass along with the chandeliers make quite a nice impression. What seems to be stage, is also a passage to big gym. Super smart move - they get lots of space for their decoration of all the off-stage stuff during performances, while at the same time no space is wasted on regular basis.

This place is not only registered monument, but also mentioned in the yet again recommended Secret Brussels book, as a recommended place to visit when around La Roue. Two points for one visit!

Yes, I took the picture of a boring door. I just like how the lettering fits the style of the building.

On the side, despite posts not appearing that often (using a computer with our daughter around is a no-go, and after she's asleep we're usually busy or dead tired), we are not totally lazy in the blog context. We are "working" on one bigger project, that I must say I am truly excited about! Unfortunately tt will still take some time before it can appear here, and in the meantime, I hope to keep the weekly-basis short posts coming up.

Bulex!

Recently I celebrated another year of my life turn into past tense. Fortunately, I find my life pretty awesome these days, so I could pass the day with a smile on my face.

On the occasion we met with friends to have a tasty diner, few drinks, and whole evening of chatting.

We visited two places which surely deserve post on their own. And it will come. But it was my birthday, we focused on enjoying ourselves and spending time with friends so let's leave the reviews for next time.

What I absolutely have to share with you already now, is the party we went to afterwards - Bulex!

I think Chris started talking about Bulex on our first date, and he never really stopped. Great parties, unique locations, funky music. It was the ultimate party, at least so it appeared in my imagination. And there was always a reason why I couldn't go and see for myself. One being, they had a long break in throwing those parties, then the holidays, then pregnancy. You can imagine how thrilled I was to finally go and see - and how scared I was to have my expectations growing out of control.

So after having a diner and few drinks, our friends decide to go home, and we turned on our night owls mode and seeked a party. Like the old days. We arrived at the address, in front of the fancy entrance of the Marivaux hotel, and looked around, but there was no party there. We were pointed to go around, to the street Saint-Pierre. And there - the party was everywhere!

There was a bit of queue to get in. But who cares, when you have a wind orchestra playing in the street and people are having fun! Bulex took over the backstreet completely. 

The idea of Bulex was to have parties for everyone, no selection. The parties are thrown in unusual places in Brussels, abandoned buildings, old stadiums etc. For some time Bulex was travelling around, for some time it had its permanent location, then for some time it was gone. Now it's back. At the ancient cinema Marivaux (I do believe it's a permanent location for the parties, at least for some time).

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The cinema, as you can see, is abandoned. I am surprised it is even allowed to get people in (but i wouldn't be surprised, if it really wasn't). What is interesting, the cinema itself is a protected monument of Brussels! Build in 1924 by the company PATHE, it was designed in Art Deco style and could seat 1500 people.

In the 60s the place was renovated and lots it balconies, gaining two additional rooms.

In the year 1991, due to Kinepolis setting in place, PATHE decided to quit its business in Belgium and left the building abandoned. There's been plan to restore it, which was supposed to be started in 2000, but as we can see - it never really happened.

Now the building lost most of its glory. And it's a great place for a party with an underground feeling.

There was main stage playing music called "Gypsy electro". And was really that. Play the song Kalashnikov over and over again with added beat, and you will get the feeling. It was fun though, and I much more prefer it to pure dance/electro whatever else. Gypsy, oldschool, kitch parties - rings my bell.

There was a smaller stage playing some other kind of music. We didn't stay long there, so i don't know. But there's choice - so it's nice. Of course there are bars organized to get some drinks, but strangely, we didn't get anything. I guess we're officially old.

About that. It's a great party. Before our lives changed we would probably stay until we could feel the morning breeze on our faces as we go back home. But we didn't. We had to drive home, so we couldn't drink (at least one of us, and alone it's not fun). We had to get up in the morning, and be responsible and everything. We also don't care about picking up people of different (or the same, whatever rings your bell) sex  And I am not saying parties are all about drinking and flirting.... Somehow still, bouncing on the old cinema rows, I felt like I don't fit there that well any more.

We moved a bit, shot some photos and set direction home. We're a bit more household animals these days. 

I still recommend that party for anyone who looks for something else. Something different. Party with no selection, where everyone is having fun together. Party where you can wear your favourite party dress, you can go in jeans and sneakers, or you can wear a bunny costume. And just have fun!

Check out Bulex website and, if you want to know about next party, like them on their Facebook page. To all the night owls out there - live long and prosper! And have a drink sometimes to your old comrades who retired to a family life :)

Parc des étangs

When I met Chris we used to live just 10 minute walk from each other. He was renting an apartment just at a side of fancy place Flagey, I was living up the Arabic Malibraan street, around the cultural mix of Arabs, Poles and all the EU nationalities working in the close by EU institutions. We liked the bars, the restaurants, the nightlife. We liked Ixelles.

And then we learnt we're going to have a baby. We tried to arrange our 1-bedroom apartment to fit in two people and a crib. We tried hard. But it didn't work. We needed new place.

Long story short, we had to say goodbye to the lively Flagey district, the bars of Cimetière d'Ixelles and the European districts around the Pl. Luxembourg. We found ourselves in Anderlecht. The "other" side of Brussels. North of the Canal.

Now, most people that know anything of Anderlecht, know the bad. I saw people giving me the "oh, I am so sorry for you" look when I just mentioned our new home. But you know what? We are loving it!

Anderlecht can look pretty grim and industrial in many places, so no wonders people have a bad image of it. But as usually, it depends on a certain place. There's no hip were we live. Not many bars, restaurants, no people speaking every language on the planet. There is no fancy houses, with big gardens and bigger cars in front. In exchange we get calm neighbourhood, all the shops within a walk or short drive, lots of grannies that would steal the baby if they only could, and young families just like us. And a park. Big and beautiful park.


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Closed by two big streets (Avenue Marius Astrid and Boulevard Maurice Careme) and a highway on top of it, surrounded by concrete apartment blocks from the 60s.... This park is pulling it off! And yes, it is so important it is on the list of protected monuments.

It is bigger than you would expect it to be. First time we decided to have a walk there, it felt as if the park kept revealing itself in front of us indefinitely. The impression is strengthened by the surroundings of the Parc J. Vives across the street, and a no name green site, with another lake, extending beyond the highway and hosting the badminton club with a cozy pub upstairs.

You can see lots birds wandering around, sometimes all over the avenue as well, so you got to be driving carefully (unless you want a fresh duck for diner, which I only assume would be completely illegal).

It's a pleasure to walk around the park (with a stroller in my case), but you can also get some rest on one of many benches "with a view". Back in the summer we also spontaneously thew a little picnic there on the grass.

There is an area in the park completely closed for visitors. It provides shelter for the park's wildlife. It's not really possible to see what's inside, but the flash of my camera apparently scared to death _something_ in there, so I just stopped taking the pictures, and focused on the outside.

There are several fountains all over the lake (which are turned down for the winter), but one is especially eye-catching, being several meters high and, good wind provided, sprinkling water all around the banks.

I feel like providing a word of explanation here. The park is beautiful and very green. On the day I was visiting it though, it was grey and rainy. Neither my camera nor I can take beautiful photographs, therefore the photos don't really show how pretty the park can look. They do show though, how it looks when it's depressingly grey outside, which I think is still pretty good.

That it the greenest picture I managed to take that day.

And if walking, sitting and running is now for you, you can always try the game of Pétanque. In the warmer days this place is full of people playing, but even when I was already running away from rain that caught me walking, I had to stop to take a picture of a man playing. Alone. In rain and cold. I call it a spirit.

I hope it is needless to say, that I am happy to have this park nearby. It only proves that in Brussels, the most amazing places are very often hidden from those who don't to look close enough.

Greetings from the 22nd floor of the concrete block!

 

Update!
While walking to find La Roue which I have just posted about now, I couldn't help myself, but took some photos of the park with nicer weather. I just have to add them :)

Église Sainte-Agathe and Bois du Wilder

When going through the monuments lists and marking them on the map I decided to test Chris a little bit. We went through couple of the files and he was trying to guess what is the picture showing, and where it can be found. He was doing really well, I must admit!

On one of the monuments he said "oh, that's a lovely place and it's next to my parents, I can't believe I never showed you that one". That's how first target of our expeditions was set. Next time we dropped the baby at her grandparents, we had a bit of time, the weather was nice - we hit the road.

You can find two Saint-Agatha's churches in Brussels, and if you search in Google Maps you will find the wrong one. Google will show you the new church, one that I believe is still in use, at Rue de l'Église (being very originally, the Church Street).

The one listed as a monument, the old one, can be found at Rue de l'Allée Verte - the Street of the Green Path. The street itself is interesting and we will come back to visit it (and blog about it) as it is, as a whole, protected and listed as a monument. This time though, we focused on the church. And the wood.

First things first. Below you can see the exact location of the church on Google Maps with a Street View. Pretty pretty, no?

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According to Wikipedia (Berchem-Sainte-Agathe) the church was build somewhere between 1287 and 1311, and is one of the two only buildings in the whole commune built before 1800. From Wikipedia I also learnt that the Church went through a restoration twice, in 1744 and in 1974. That's where it ends. I could not find any other information about its origin and history.

What I found though, is old pictures of the place. For French speaking people interested in the history (yes, Nolan, I am thinking of you now), this is interesting link to follow: Bruxelles Anecdotique - Berchem-Ste-Agathe.

Nowadays the church is closed. We didn't see any information about possible visits or events happening there, so we only took some photographs from the outside. I must say I like the new look of it. It looks cleaner and, paradoxically, older than before.

On the picture below, being view on the Rue de l'Allée Verte, you can see part of the building that is shown as a whole in the last picture from the past. This is the ancient Brasserie (brewery) which we will definitely go back to (and it is also listed as a protected monument). At the time of our visit though, it was still undergoing massive renovation so it wasn't looking that impressive.

If you're standing in the front of the church (as in the second to last picture) and you will turn around, you will see one of the entrances to the Bois du Wilder.

You can find a general description of the place (in English) at this website: Sustainable City - Wilder Wood.

The detailed description, unfortunately only in French: IF_EV_Parcs_Bois_du_Wilder_FR.

According to the document linked above, the first mentions of the site come from the Middle Ages. It was probably part of the "I'Hof ter Wilst", ancient farm dating from XIII century. Sources say about the castle which was there around XVI century. 

After the French Revolution (1789 to 1799) the castle was destroyed and the whole site fell into the ownership of the Koninckx' - hence the other name for the wood - Koninckxbos. The name Koninckx rings a bell in my head. I think I saw it somewhere browsing through the Brussels monuments, but I cannot find it back right now. I will do more research some other time...

At that time the place was gradually turning into park of English style, only to be cut down (again) during the World War II for a fireplace wood. It was then divided into parcels for the purpose of urbanisation, but one of the parts remained abandoned and eventually turned into the wood that we can visit today.

As for me, it is really great place to have a walk at. Looks like a miniature of a forest (which I guess is a definition of a wood, really). It seems really wild in some places, but is cut with several paths containing lots of benches to rest and relax. And trash cans! Trivial maybe, but I pay attention to that - nothing more annoying than having to carry your trash for an hour with you (and seeing that some people didn't care to carry them at all).

On the other side you will find yourself next to a cemetery, but we didn't feel like visiting that one yet (however strangely that might sound).

On the Wiki pages, along the lines where the author complains about the commune being changed due to the pressure of developers, I found information that this site belongs to the commune itself, therefore is not at risk of being changed into a apartment block or a supermarket. Good news, for sure.