Quartier du Châtelain

Gray clouds are assembling outside. The air is still quite chilly. The calendar says February, which in most places in the Northern Hemisphere lands you firmly in the grasp of winter. And yet...Does the moss on the trees look slightly greener? Are the leaves on the shrubs thickening? Today there is this undefinable something in the air. Dare I say it? Could it be a touch of...Spring?!?

At any rate, while FB-ing with a friend in New Orleans this morning, she reminded me that we have long planned to do a post about our little corner of Brussels. Believe it or not, this month marks the one year anniversary of Troy's arrival in Belgium! Over the last year, we've taken many photos of our apartment, street, and quartier (neighborhood), and since they were taken over a period of months, you'll even get glimpses of Brussels in different seasons. So, let's begin our virtual tour, shall we?



Around the corner from our house, at the corner of Avenue Louise and Rue de Bailli. This scene is typical--cars and bikes and trams and pedestrians going every which way all at once.



This is our block. One of the things I love about Brussels, architecturally-speaking, is all the beautiful cast-iron balcony railings.




Here's our building at the tail-end of renovation. Our apartment is on the European 2nd Floor, so we're the third set of windows up in this shot. Since this time, the yucky garage door has been replaced (good) and the lovely climbing vine has died (bad).



This is our dining room and kitchen with a view towards the front of our apartment. As you might guess, Troy took this shot before we moved in.



Here we are on our balcony, looking up Rue de Livourne to the north.



Back down at street level, this is a look at Rue de Bailli. There are tons of great shops, bars, and restaurants on this three-block stretch. And, I love the way an urban designer long ago chose to terminate the visual axis on the lovely Trinity Church.



Here's Troy sitting outside the Roxi, one of our favorite neighborhood watering holes. He's enjoying an Orval (just one of the hundreds of varieties of Belgian beers) and some sunshine! This was during the two weeks of May that constituted our summer last year.



Brussels has done a really wretched job in the urban planning department--so bad, in fact, that there is a term in Europe: the Brusselization of a city means that it has been ripped apart with little or no regard to historical resources, urban form, or continuity of use. That being said, however, Brussels is the birthplace of Art Nouveau and, somehow despite itself, the city is littered with beautiful examples of the style. This building is one of the prettiest examples we've come across, and luckily for us it is located about a block-and-a-half from our apartment.



In previous posts, including the last one, I have mentioned that the proximity of the weekly Châtelain Market was a key factor in determining our choice of apartment here in Brussels. Since we moved in, we have continually found other wonderful aspects to our neighborhood and feel so blessed that we landed where we did.

Click Here - Châtelain Quartier Photo Album