“Curieuse Belgique”: all these anecdotes and astonishing stories that you probably don’t know about our country
This is not a guide. And yet, Gwennaëlle Gribaumont, with Curious Belgium, takes us to discover endearing stories and surprising anecdotes linked to different places in the country.
At a time when many winter attractions are already closing their doors, barely installed, because of this damn virus, here is a book which, if it is not strictly a tourist guide – “There is no map or practical information concerning the opening hours of places for example, except their address”, underlines the author, Gwennaëlle Gribaumont, collaborator, among others, in the cultural pages of La Libre Belgique – nonetheless swarms with eighty crisp pieces of information that tell the story of the places and monuments in front of us all passed without knowing the reason for their presence in this precise place. Nothing will prevent you from taking a tour in the following weeks, in case only the walks have still allowed.
The anecdotes supported have in any case been gleaned from all over the country, photographs. Grouped into themes, we will start the trip respecting the formula “Women and children first!”, And inevitably, going to Manneken-Pis but also, less known, the Little Milkmaid of Saint-Nicolas church, always in the center of Brussels. As for Sainte-Alène, she helps you in Dilbeek, where it has long been claimed that the blind recovered their sight when passing near her grave; It was the same for mutes who recovered their speech or paraplegics who got up and walked.