Institut Redouté-Peiffer

Last post coming from almost two months ago - I can't be more ashamed. I was really set on posting every two weeks, I swear, but then one day, when I turned my computer on, it expelled a little line of smoke and started smelling of burnt plastic, so I instantly turned it off. Then there was delay in getting it to repair-shop, then waiting time for parts coming from other side of the globe, then picking it up... and here we are. Halfway through the summer and the blog is close to dead. Enough with the excuses though, let's go to the topic.

One day I saw a poster on our entrance door, inviting to visit the Institut Redouté-Peiffer. It instantly rang a bell, and indeed, in the Secret Brussels book the place is mentioned as a nice spot (yet again that book!). It's also placed next door to our home, so no excuse to skip it.

Institut Redouté-Peiffer is a horticulture school, and on the open days they were supposed to have a plant market. As we needed to vamp-up our balcony, we packed up and headed to do some shopping.

A little bit of history (mostly from Wikipedia page, so nothing fancy). In 1913 representation of (not existing anymore) Province de Brabant opened a gardening school in Anderlecht. Originally set in Neerpede (picture found on the ReflexCity website).

It was named after a Belgian florist and painter, Pierre-Joseph Redouté, a court artist of Queen Marie Antoinette. He was at the time well known for his watercolour paintings of flowers.

Serge Peiffer was an alumnus of the institute. I didn't find much information on him (not that I looked hard either), but looks like he opened his own institute at a time, and in 1995 they both were merged into what we have today.

The school doesn't look like anything very interesting from the outside, so I don't think there are many people knowing what it hides inside.

Even though we came there on open doors day, we were told by very nice stuff, that you can come to visit anytime (but it's better to call in advance, to see if there's anyone to open the door for you).

Plant market is available only occasionally though. We were helped by a very professional man, who recommended exactly what kind of plants we can take for our balcony, helped us to gather it all up, and also exchange some words about the whole big idea of banning non-registered seeds. 

Inside the building not only you can see several glasshouses where students learn about plants and taking care of them. There's a whole separate part devoted to recreation of the tropical conditions. It looks absolutely stunning! 

All the plants are beautiful and smell is overwhelming. There's even a bench to relax on, maybe read a book, and feel like you're on tropical holidays.

Initially it didn't seem like there is much to see outside, but luckily I dragged Chris in one of the alleys (just to make sure), and it turned out there's a whole big garden worth visiting.

 

For such a small place, we were amazed to see how much time you can spend wandering around in there. Vibrating colours, and as before, overwhelming smell of flowers (even lacking the tropical temperature) make this place feel magical. All you miss is some queen playing croquet with a flamingo.

It was really difficult for me to leave this place, but Belgian weather never disappoints, and we were thrown out by the rain starting to fall on our heads. Fortunately, we have a piece of that place growing on our balcony now.

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.

Cité-jardin de la Roue (Garden City)

With the promise or reviving this blog, I wanted to use some free time we had to go look for one registered monument in our neighborhood - La Roue school. We did find it, but we will have to go back when it's open, because all the magic of it lies inside, so for now - no photos.

Fortunately, on the way we discovered really great area that caught our eyes. After further investigation, turns out this place is described in the Secret Brussels book I reviewed some time ago. It made me really proud, that I felt it's an interesting area before I read it! :)

The area is called simply La Roue (The Wheel), and you can access it via metro station called... La Roue. In one place I read that the name comes from the inn called La Roue that used to be around there. In other place I read the name comes from the breaking wheel. Did they have an inn here with breaking wheel inside? I don't know :)

What's special about it is the garden city.

When we walked around we were astonished to stumble upon Plain des Loisirs (Leisure square)  surrounded by little "hobbit houses". With kindergarden, playground (open for everyone interested) and lots of green in the middle, and lines of identical small houses, with little door, it look like a separate world from the very busy Chaussée de Mons we came from.

 

BTW, on the way from the metro station to this place, you pass on a square with big church in the middle. Just next to it, there's another small playground, usually busier. If you took your kids with you, I recommend planning a stop there.

Many houses were closed, doors bricked and with some numbers painted on them. We were scared they're going to demolish them, fortunately, they're just undergoing renovation. Someone definitely added some charm to the place by writing down random poems on almost every single brick wall we saw.

From what I read in the mentioned book and on the wiki, the houses were being build starting from 1920 (they actually started in 1907 but were interrupted by the war). It was supposed to be the working class dream come true - for current standards the houses seem rather tiny, but back then it was almost a luxury (so they say).

Nowadays 40% of area belongs still to the commune, which, as we understand, uses them for public housing.

The whole pleasant neighborhood spreads pretty wide, even though houses change their shapes further around.

Anything wrong with this sign? ;)

Going in the direction of the canal you can find vegetable gardens (the google street view looks way better, as there wasn't much growing there yet when we passed by).

We walked through the canal, passing the water lock, just to come across...

...La Senne!

It's not an usual view. If you ever wondered why Brussels seems like the only big city in Europe that doesn't have a river - it has La Senne. In 19th century though, it was totally covered, and flows under the city now. You can still see some stretches of it every now and then, especially on city borders.

The river looks lovely there, and there is new pathway with a little picnic space at the end of it. A bit industrial view on sides, but if you place yourself well on the bench, you can focus on the green trees.

Another pleasant walk checked. With weather changing from really sunny, to rainy, I'm happy to say we're fully using every stretch of sun that happens.

 

I don't know.... We just saw this on the way.

PS. That day we walked really a lot. Going to La Roue we passed by our parc des étangs, where I couldn't resist to take some pictures to update my post about it from last year. Later on we ended at beautiful Neerpede and visited local pizzeria.... but that is yet to come.

Secret Brussels

Welcome in 2013, we have survived the end of the world!

(dry reference to the anticipated apocalypse: check)

Hope you all had a pleasant holiday break, and are welcoming this new year with eagerness, positive energy and good vibes! 

Good for you. We are all sick, and picture behind the window is as grey as it can get. Personally, I can't wait for a beam of sunshine coming down to warm up our city a bit, so we can enjoy being out again, and my list of places to visit and photograph got extremely long.

One of the reason of it, is definitely my also growing collection of books about Brussels. Since I was pleased to receive (and buy myself) another two, I think it's time for a small review. And with that, I'll start with the very first book I got from a friend for my birthday last year. And it's called "Secret Brussels". Just perfect, isn't it? :)

For the practical details, as it was a present I should not check the prices for the book myself, but I am sure you can figure it out with simple search online, same goes for as to where to buy this book. Several places as a form of recommendation from me, include Sterling Books and Filigranes, I also saw few similar books in the wonderful store by the Brussels Museum of Fine Arts (though this particular one was not there).

The book has a short, to-the-point subtitle "Local Guides by Local People", and is indeed written by inhabitants of the city. It comes in a handy pocket guide form, easy to carry around with you.

Chapters are made of different districts of the city, and in my edition that includes West of Boulevards, East of Boulevards, Ixelles, Etterbeek and the European District, Saint-Gilles and Forest, Anderlecht (yay), Molenbeek, Koekelberg and Laeken, Uccle, Woluwe-Saint-Pierre and Woluwe-Saint-Lambert, Watermael-Boisfort and Auderghem. Each chapter begins with the list of all items in that district and their localisation shown on the plan. 

You won't find many of the most famous places of Brussels, and even the few that are there, are shown from different than usual perspective (the alchemistry of the Grand Place, masonic Brussels Park). You will find tons of unusual monuments, unknown museums and hidden architectural gems. 

Each curiosity has one page of description, with a full page picture on the side, practical information (like localisation, or opening hours where applicable), and sometimes - sights to see nearby with their little description too.

I don't think I can say anything more, without actually going into details of the content, which I don't want to do. This book deserves to be bought by anyone interested. It is not a guide for someone who's first time in Brussels (unless you're a total hipster going always against the wave, but I'd feel sorry if you missed to see Atomium). 

What it is, is a perfect guide for someone who already knows Brussels, seen the main things. Maybe you're coming to the city yet another time, you've seen all the "important" stuff and you look for a fresh idea. Maybe you've been living here for a while and need inspiration for another walk in the city. Maybe you've been here your whole life, but you never noticed this weird museum by the corner, or beautiful sgraffiti on the house in your street. (Yes, after reading all the books, and getting into the topic, I know words like sgraffiti, art-nouveau and "new insights are crafted from both mundane and transcendant textures". Ah no, last one is from http://www.artybollocks.com :)).

What can I say in the end? Open your wallet, get the book, hit the streets of Brussels and make yourself feel like Indiana Jones - you're exploring!