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.

Cité Jouët-Rey (Garden City... again!)

Despite the weather, which is not spoiling us lately considering time of the year, it turned out easier to go out and see places, than to find time to sit and write about them. Most difficult part being small yet loud 1-yeard-old critter set on taking over every piece of electronic you might have in your hands at a moment. Neither of us have an idea where she got this love for gadgets ;)

Anyway. Inspired by the last discovery of the local garden city, and the general idea behind them, I have found that there are several more of them in our city. Therefore next time I wanted to meet with our friends for a little walk, I checked what's around the place they live, and found one in Etterbeek, Cité Jouët-Rey, and we headed just there.

We wanted to pass by Albert Hall as well, which is mentioned in Secret Brussels to be an interesting object and is nearby, but it turned to be closed. Chris says there are ULB parties happening there, so I guess we'll have to invite ourselves one day :)

The Garden City itself, when approaching, looks less splendid than La Roue. Just a small amount of houses in the line. Nice, but not THAT nice.

But then you see the actual entrance in the middle of the line, which leads straight down the rabbit hole.

The broom on that picture represents magic.

OK, you don't end up in Wonderland, but it's still pretty neat. Two lines of houses enclose between pretty nice park. It feels a bit like walking around someones private garden, but don't be afraid, the area is considered semi-public, listed as a park to visit on official Etterbeek site, so you're not invading anyone's privacy.

Still, the place is tiny, but great to visit if you live nearby - grab a book, picnic blanket, and enjoy the sun.

This Garden City was created between 1909 and 1910 by Hospices de Bruxelles for elder people. Renovated in 1998 it is now maintained by a organisation helping all the less-fortunate people (I have a horrible problem finding an English term here, anybody?).

It is definitely well maintained, with green grass, beautiful trees, and tiny gardens in front and back of each house. It does look like a tiny oasis in the middle of the city.

If you want to find it on the map, for some unknown reason Google knows it by the name Cité Jourdan. Mix up with the famous Place Jourdan?

After visit to this pretty, but small place, we decided to just walk around, passing by the Place du Roi Vainqueur, which looks splendind when the trees are blooming (but is currently under some serious renovation).

As a bonus, picture of a double-coloured tree from a courtyard of some school we passed by (I need to yet find which one was it!)

We walked further until Park Cinquantenaire, where we had a small break on a blanket next to the beautiful flowers, which was brutally interrupted by upcoming rain. Spring this year is very moody.

Seems like all I can write this time, hearing my daughter woken up and is demanding my attention :)

Peek into "next episode" - we have finally seen insides of the La Roue school!

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.