À cause de la canicule (et d’une montée en continue depuis Liège) je décide d’arrêter mon voyage à Eupen, commune germanophone. Premier véritable bivouac, je plante ma tente en pleine forêt autour d’un feu crépitant où l’on s’affaire à cuire des saucisses sur un fond de Néerlandais…
Entretiens au coin du feu
Tell me, who are you ?
My name is Laura, I have lived in Bruges since I was born, just outside of the city. Everything is close by over there, in only 5 minutes I can be in the center of the city with my bike. This is our last day before going back, we wanted to go to Slovenia for hiking, but with the corona-crisis we chose to stay in Belgium while going a bit “outside”, therefore our choice to go in Wallonia.
What can you tell me about Wallonia ?
Tough question, we left the train, passed by the shop and went straight to the forest so we did not see a lot of the city or its people. They seem to have cozy streets and we learned that the people from Wallonia hardly speak Dutch. You need a lot of patience and most of the time they have difficulties talking with us.
How come ?
I think it’s the same reason I don't like to speak French all the time. We really have different languages, so you can easily be afraid to make mistakes and swiftly feel quite insecure.
Contrairement aux régions flamande et wallonne, les indications toponymiques des villes françaises ou néerlandaises ne sont pas traduites, elles ne portent donc qu'un nom français, néerlandais ou allemand.
© Frinck51
Have you noticed any changes in Bruges recently ?
People always say that Bruges and its politics are really conservative, but last year they have made more efforts to make the city attractive to young people without changing it too much, since everything is historically protected there, you can’t even put solar panels on your roof. But on the other side, they tried to do temporary things like pop-ups or “floating-floor” on the canals and we were allowed to swim in the canals as well, it makes it a little bit more modern.
(NDLR. Tous les 3 ans, Bruge accueil la Triennale, festival d'art et d'architecturel'architecture contemporains. édition 2015 : "Que se passerait si les plus de 5 millions de touristes qui visitent Bruges chaque année restaient effectivement sur place ?")
Is it difficult to start new projects in Bruges ?
I think the biggest challenge when we go to Bruges is how to get away from the tourists. They are everywhere ! They walk in the middle of the street, it is really hard to go around with your bike.
Her boyfriend: Most of the buildings are protected on the outside, but you can still decorate the inside as you want. Even McDonalds manages to get a building, so if they do it, anybody can do it.
Her: Well, they have money.
Cabinet d'architectures OBBA (Sojung Lee & Sangjoon Kwak) et Dertien12 (Tom Gantois)
Triennale 2018
What could be helpful for you to change things in Bruges ?
Him: We have a tower, the Belfry, and inside there are big halls (NDLR. the wool and cloth hall) that are never used. It would be nice if we could do things with it.
Her: Now, during the summer, there are small musical events, you also have a market on wednesday, but a tourist free two-weeks would be great.