Foreign territories that could have been Belgian

The territory of Belgium has not always been as static and clear as it is now... In Roman times, Gallia Belgica was a pretty big territory comprising Belgium, the Netherlands, a Northern part of France and some other territories... And still, there are territories around Belgium that share a common history, culture and/or local languages with it, including Walloon Flanders, a territory in France! I've decided to give you a list of these territories, with no intention of reuniting them, but simply because they are part of our history as well.

French territories

If there's a part of France that is the closest to Belgian culture, it's the Nord department (Lille, Dunkirk, Douai...). It mainly shares with Belgium the tradition of the friterie, friture or frietkot, which is a place, often a sort of van, where someone distributes fries in boxes or paper cones. It is the only place in France where fries are a real tradition, but I insist, "French" fries are mostly Belgian!... Anyway, Nord was made famous in 2008 with the French blockbuster Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis, which featured local comedian Danny Boon speaking a Picard dialect called Ch'ti(mi). As a matter of fact, similar dialects are spoken in the Belgian area of Mons and Tournai!

Yet, Picard is not the only local language in Nord! Once upon a time, West Flemish was the main language in Maritime Flanders (coastal part of Nord), an area that includes Dunkerque, and, strangely enough, the village where the film took place (an error which a lot have criticised after it was released). This area was part of the ancient County of Flanders, which also included cities such as Lille or Douai. Actually the later cities are in another area called, this is not a joke, Walloon Flanders, and yet now part of France! Both areas became French after the Treaties of Nijmegen in 1678-9 and West Flemish is now only known to very few people.

In the same department, we find cities including Valenciennes, Maubeuge or Le Quesnoy, which are part of what could be called French Hainaut, and were included in the County of Hainaut. Later on, French king Louis 14th conquered them in 1659-78, so that they became French, while the Northern part of the former county became later on the Belgian province of Hainaut.

Borders of French Flanders before 1789

Another part of France which is very close to Belgium and, especially Wallonia, is the city of Givet in the French department of Ardennes. It is, as far as I know, the only place in France where Walloon was/is spoken, which makes it... a "French Wallonia"! Givet used to belong to the Liège bishops in the Middle Ages, but much later on it was given to Louis 14th also after the Treaties of Nijmegen.

Dutch territories

The neighbouring Netherlands, with which Belgium used to form a bigger country, has nowadays two provinces that could be considered as sisters to Belgian provinces: Limburg and North Brabant.

The Belgian province of Limburg is the Western part of a former Limburg, from which an Eastern part was given up for the Netherlands in 1839, and which belonged in great part to the Principalty of Liège and the dukes of Brabant. The current Dutch province of Limburg actually comprises only a small part of the former Limburg, mostly the area of Maastricht. Ultimately, Gelder was part of Limburg as well and it even came to be included in the United Belgian States, but it came back later on to the Netherlands.

In a recent blog post I talked about the possible name change for the province of Antwerp to "Central Brabant" (Midden-Brabant) to favour its Brabantian past. In the Netherlands, the North Brabant also used to be part of the Duchy of Brabant, but it was given to the Netherlands after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. According to the politicians that want the name change of the province of Antwerp, the two territories still have a lot of cultural exchanges nowadays, in addition to similar dialects.

And Luxembourg

As a matter of fact, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg was officially Belgian from 1830 to 1839! Then the Southern part made a country on its own and the Northern one remained Belgian, becoming the province of Luxembourg. Nevertheless, Luxembourg is still very close to Belgium, not only because both are small countries with three official languages. A lot of Belgians, especially those from the Belgian province of Luxembourg, (try to) find a job in the Grand Duchy. Another element was the currency, now replaced with the euro: the Luxembourgish franc had an equivalent value to the Belgian franc, so that nobody really cared about their difference, a bit like Scottish pounds and English pounds (except that it seems to be problematic to use Scottish pounds in London...). Finally, the main private television channel in Belgium, RTL-TVI, was primarily a Luxembourgish channel. And currently, it is still possible to watch a news broadcast in Luxembourgish language at 6am every day on Club RTL... I don't really know why, to be honest!


In a future blog post, I will also talk about Belgian settlers in the USA, who founded cities such Namur, Brussels or Belgium in Wisconsin, so keep posted!

Special Movember: 8 Belgians who adopted the stach

For some reason, people tend to always picture Belgians (and also Frenchmen) with a moustache. It is definitely not a typically Belgian feature and, although some hipsters tend to get one "ironically" nowadays, it is not very popular here... Yet this months, you will probably see a bit more people with it because of "Movember", a charity event in which men grow moustaches in November to remind others of cancers and other health issues. As a support for this event, I have made a list of famous people or characters from Belgium who usually wear a stach, a good way to know more about our culture.

1) Hercule Poirot: Like a sir



Fictional private detective and Agatha Christie's main character, probably inspired of Belgian immigrants in the UK, he always solves intricate criminal affairs with a Belgian phlegm(!)

2) Anthony Van Dyck: The creator



Famous 17th-century Flemish Baroque painter, he also invented an eponymous type of beard-stach, which you can see on all of his self-portraits.

3) Bert Kruismans: The caustic bilingual

 

Flemish stand-up comedian, also popular on tv-channels of the whole country, he has performed in both national languages and loves to describe the splendid weirdnesses of Belgium

4) Grand/Lange Jojo: The singing grandpa



Funny old-fashioned singer from Brussels, he is often considered as a symbol of Belgian identity and he is famous for popular tracks like the drinking song "On a soif" (We are thirsty).

5) Balthasar Boma: Mr Tournée Générale



Fictive character from popular Flemish sitcom F.C. De Kampioenen, telling the story of a local football club, he is that old fashioned company owner who has the worst pick-up lines and keeps mixing French and Dutch all the time: one of his catch phrases is "Tournée générale!", meaning "It's my round!".

6) Thomson & Thompson: The slapstick policemen



The clumsy police twins are part of the comic book Tintin, and until the 80s, the stach was a popular trend among policemen in Belgium (didn't it even use to be part of the uniform?), which is not the case anymore, unfortunately for those who have this as a fantasy!

7) Olivier Deleuze: The green stach



Co-president of ECOLO, a francophone green party, and also the first mayor from this party in the Brussels region, he is from the multicultural commune of St-Josse-ten-Noode.

8) Bent van Looy: The indie boy



Lead singer of Das Pop and drummer of Soulwax, the thirty-something has also designed his own clothing and is now jury in the Flemish version of The Voice.

Any other idea? Send it in a comment!

Best Belgian beers awarded at international contest

Have you already made up your mind on what your favourite belgian beer is? If not, you should check out the winner list of the European Beer Star Awards 2014! Last Wednesday, the 11th edition of the contest took place in Nurenberg. It awarded "somewhat special, authentic beers" from all over the world and... 8 Belgian beers got a medal!

The three Golden Medals: Maes pils, Oud Kriek Oud Beersel and Car d'Or

The competition took a more specific turn in that all beers were classified in no less than 52 categories to make sure everyone would find their own favourite (read the whole list here). Three Belgian beers were proudly awarded a Golden medal (see image above): Maes pils as a "European-Style Mild Lager", Oud Kriek Oud Beersel as a "Belgian-Style Fruit Sour Ale" and Car d'Or (Saint-Feuillien) as a "Belgian-Style Ale", the only Walloon beer that received a medal.

Besides, two Belgian beers were awarded a Silver medal: Brasserie LeFort, as a "Belgian-Style Strong Ale" and Bersalis Tripel as a "Belgian-Style Tripel", and three received a Bronze medal: Affligem Blond as a "Belgian-Style Strong Ale", Hoegaarden White as a "Belgian-Style Witbier" and finally RODENBACH Vintage as a "Belgian-Style Sour Ale".

Eight medals in an international beer competition... expectable in a country where the beer is national pride and most of the beer categories are "Belgian-style"?... Not that much, because US and Germany are the ones that received the largest number of awards... maybe because Belgian beers are not famous enough? Anyway, it didn't stop the country for winning the World Beer Awards 2014 in September with its Tongerlo Blond!

Any idea what your favourite one is? A good way is to try them and tell us in a comment! (You can try the analcoholic versions of them if you prefer... ;) )

A new name for the province of Antwerp?

Today, an idea surprised all newspapers readers! The parties of the federal majority in Flanders (N-VA, CD&V and Open VLD) suggested a change in the name of the Antwerp province (called after its capital city)... into "Central Brabant" (Midden-Brabant in Dutch)!

Why "Central Brabant" and not "Northern Brabant"? Actually, there is already a Northern Brabant in the Netherlands, constituting the Northern part of a former Duchy of Brabant, which also included a Middle (Antwerp province) and a Southern Brabant (Flemish and Walloon Brabants... and Brussels). Some people see this name change as a good idea to boost collaboration between the Dutch and Flemish Brabants. These regions share the same dialect group called Brabantian (which today seems to be used in media as a sort of standard Flemish dialect)...

What it would look like if they changed the name of the Antwerp province

Anyway, the suggestion was made because there is too much confusion between the city and the province of Antwerp. People don't seem to identify clearly with its capital, a big city with a powerful identity, which takes all the attention in the province, while people from Kempen, Rupel, Mechelen, etc. apparently don't feel very "Antwerpian". By contrast, East Flanders is already not called after its capital Ghent, and people in some part of the province don't identify themselves to it either. Ultimately, a reason for the change in name is because the three parties wish to give big cities such as Antwerp and Ghent more autonomy from their province.

The news caused an uproar on the web and some people think it is part of a series of pointless changes from a goverment that wants to ultimately separate Belgium in two countries. Others see it as a way to encourage a re-annexation of Flanders to the Netherlands, as was the larger Brabant territory. Well, there is also a Dutch and a Flemish Limburg, but... I don't think it can happen, because Flemish nationalists are usually proud of their region and very few actually see it as a part of the Netherlands. A lot more think this name change doesn't really "change" anything, but it would have a cost and there are more important matters (especially economical ones) to be debated now. Liège and Namur are also both city names and province ones, and they're pretty confusing too, but it doesn't seem to matter to anyone...

The idea was already provided by far-right party Vlaams Belang in 2008, but didn't go further on. It will have to wait until 2019 for the legislative elections, because you need to change the Belgian constitution in order to achieve it...