Belgium Has a Split Personality!

The Tour de France starts tomorrow in Liège Belgium (or Belgique to the French). The northern half of Belgium is called Flanders, site of bloody World War I battles that inspired the poem: "In Flanders fields the poppies blow, Between the crosses. row on row." Well, as you might expect, the people of Flanders speak Flemish. But Flemish is really Dutch; they’re just too proud to admit it. Or they don’t like to call it Dutch, because it sounds too much like Deutch (German), which it almost is anyway. And of course the real Dutch live in Holland, but just when you figure out where Holland is on the map, you see that it is really called the Netherlands. Meanwhile, the Dutch-speaking Flamands (Flemish) live in Belgium, which they call België. And their capital city is Brussel, which the French-speaking Belgians call Bruxelles, and the English and Americans call Brussels. (Finally something the Yanks and Brits agree on!)

Now most of the rest of Belgique is called Wallonia, and the people are Walloons, and they speak French, because for a long time Belgium was ruled by Spain. (I know, it doesn’t make any sense! Just stay with me.) But the French speakers in Bruxelles are mostly not Walloons. They are some other brand of French. Which brings up the point that Brussel/Bruxelles is smack in the middle of Flanders, and both Flemish and French are the official languages. It is the capital of België/Belgique by vote of the Flemish and Bruxelles French, to the consternation of the French-speaking Walloons.

There really is no point in all of this, except that Liège is in Wallonia, the Walloon south-eastern portion of Belgique, and that is where this year’s Tour de France will start on June 30. Wallonia also includes Luxembourg, but it is now a separate country (if a Grand Duchy qualifies as a country). And of course Luxembourg is the home of Andy and Frank Schleck and the RadioShack-Nissan-Trek cycling team. (How did those Walloon, French-speaking boys get such German sounding names?)

Let the Tour begin!

Beautiful baptismal font in the main cathedral of Liège.  It has nothing to do with cycling, but it is one of Liège's cultural treasures.

A 16th Century restaurant in Old Liège.  The sign over the door would not lie, would it?