This and That

It is strange to watch Flemish T.V. with subtitles ... and still not understand a word!

In Paris, when crossing the Sienne River on certain bridges, we could look down to the strip of land below to witness a peculiarity of their summer.  Tonnes of sand and a few palm trees in pots are trucked in, to create artificial beaches.  Sun loungers can be hired and we saw a large container of colourful plastic buckets and spades.  The palm trees we saw were very poor specimens.  Long trucks and a few short fronds.  But even on a cool evening many family groups were there enjoying a picnic.

In public toilets in Belgium, the flush is activated by a foot pedal on floor level to one side of "the throne" ... a more hygienic solution?

The impressive themed toilets in the Louvre, I later found, were also in the second large department store in Paris.  So "Point W.C." may be a company that operates many such facilities.  This time business was not so brisk, so I peeped in several other cubicles.  Each has one side wall with a different image and that forms the colour theme for products for the bathroom, displayed behind glass at the back of the cubicle, which can be purchased out at the counter.

In certain areas about town, the air of Brugge has a certain unpleasant pungency to it.  (Think an open drain or blocked toilet.). We left the hotel about 8 am yesterday and caught a whiff.  Woodsie remarked, "The air has quite a taste to it!"

The main square in Brugge has a statue of two men.  In about the 1300s, local Flemish were tiring of French tyranny and these two led a revolution against French rule.  They challenged all they encountered to say a certain Flemish phrase, and one thousand Frenchman were killed in one night alone.  They wrestled control from the French for some time but eventually lost it again.

One of the two revolution leaders lived in the building that is now our hotel.  Apparently a book has been written about the building and one man at Reception told us the basics.  It was once a butchers.  The vast cellars date from the 1300s.  From the 1400s right up to 1950 it was a brewery.  Beer is a very big deal here in Belguim.  From 1950 to 1986 it was a printers, with living space at the front a d the business behind.  Then that same family converted the building to a hotel.

Museums abound where we have been.  But Brugges has two that are unusual.  A Museum for Chocolate and another for the Potato Chip.  Might check them out today.