Brilliant Expat life in Brussels, Belgium

Bonjour and welcome to my Belgium. I’m pleased you are joining me on Day Two of

Wren’s Worldwide Wanderings Blogging from A-Z challenge.  

B is for Belgium.

I have fond memories of our two occasions living in Brussels, a total of eight years. When you live in a country, if you’re lucky, you take a little bit of the place into your soul and it remains with you forever.

Looking back I can credit learning many things whilst in Brussels. Here are six things which I have been grateful for.

1. Linguistic skills:

There are three official languages in Belgium – French, Flemish, and German. The quote that stuck in my mind from those early days living in Brussels was:

‘Monolingualism is the illiteracy of the twenty-first century.’

Hey, no pressure then kids! We were keen to ensure our children learned the languages in the countries we made our home. In Belgium, they went to French-speaking schools and during the long summer holidays, we went to French-language schools in either Paris or the South of France, Moi aussi!

I can speak French. Well, let me qualify that by saying I can easily chatter away in French in Belgium where they are bemused at my determination to ‘have a go’ even when they themselves have five fluent languages up their sleeve.

As soon as I arrive in Paris and try speaking to a taxi driver forget it, I could be speaking jibberish.

Les Belges will welcome you into the country with a warm hello and always a slightly sheepish grin at the thought that someone has actually come to visit their country.

2. Parenting skills:

Maybe this is debatable too, but sure as eggs are eggs I would never have relaxed into the role of a full-time stay at home parent, had there not been a pretty massive brick wall in my way to continue my professional career.

Realistically you needed French, Flemish and English languages to easily work in Belgium. Unless you were lucky enough to have been recruited in by a multinational company out of the country. Just saying!

With a houseful of toddlers and a baby born in Belgium, I feel very grateful that our lifestyle afforded me the opportunity to stay home as the primary carer.

3. Driving skills: 

If you can drive in Belgium you can drive almost anywhere.

How I ever mastered the ‘priorité a droit’, and we survive to tell the tale is beyond me. Priorité a droit is the weird Belgium road rule that means anyone can enter the main road from the right at certain X-roads.

To stay safe we all became much better defensive drivers. And yes that is probably me, pushing into the roundabout as you say “geez, dd you see that!”

4. Wanderlust:

Belgium is nestled between France, Germany, Luxembourg and The Netherlands. We could easily wake up and say what country shall we go to for lunch today? It was easy to get home to the United Kingdom, either by boat or through the Channel Tunnel, we could be across in England within three hours.

Exploring Europe was a bonus, open borders a wonder for easy travel…

5. Interest in European Politics:

We loved being in the heart of Europe. Our friends worked for Governments or the European Commission or quite possibly at the European headquarters of the businesses they worked for. There was an energy and a buzz to Belgium.

There was a darker side to Belgium which was interesting looking back on it as it plays out in my mind more than some of the good stuff. Marc Detroux the infamous Belgium Paedophile was on the run at this time, there are dark tensions between the Wallonia (French-speaking) and Flanders (Flemish) which have impregnated political life.

Whilst Belgium is a fascinating small country it constantly punches above its weight and I love that about the place.

6. Culinary skills:

You never, ever get a bad meal in Belgium, think about it. This was the era of dinner parties at home, we would bundle all the kids up in the back of the car, put them to bed at a friends house and eat a wonderful French inspired dinner…. and then nightmare we had to reciprocate!

I attended quite a few French cooking courses back in the day.

These were the days of cheap wine, wonderful chocolates, speculoos biscuits, warm waffles in winter. Not forgetting moules and frites, or mussels and fries.  I’m not a mussel lover but give me seconds on the chips and the choice of tomato ketchup and mayo.  Oh, la la. Then there are the beers… I think I could go on and on, yes I definitely miss the food,

(I can hear my friends all chortling right now. I promise I’ll do a French dinner party one day! )

You can read more about my previous Belgium posts here:

1. Brussels Mourns – written after the Belgium Bombings 2016
2. Brussels Belgium – with a hint of a waffle she’s back!
3. Waterloo where Napoleon did surrender!

Thank you for stopping by to visit. Have you been to Belgium? if so where did you go and what did you think?