First visit : Amandine (20_22/07)

So, here's the second episode of the adventures of LpM, with Amandine who visited me, a friend working in Paris. This week was the week end of the national holiday, on Saturday the 21st. And the day before was the traditional national ball. So we went on the Place du Jeu de Balle to attend what was supposed to be the ball ... and actually we've seen a concert of the Magical Flying Thunderbirds, a really swinging Belgium band (HERE), playing covers from other bands (like U2, ...). That was a great concert, all the people enjoying to dance in the middle of the place.

Copyright http://www.themagicalflyingthunderbirds.be/

The day after that was the NATIONAL HOLIDAY, with a lot of events happening all around the city. The plan was to see as much as we could in the city.

The first stop was for the law court, that we could visit :

Then, direction the very centre, through Place de la Chapelle :


and Place Royale :


And you can't imagine how many people were there ...



I even almost lost Amandine, fortunately, there was a sign for lost chlidren ^^

After that, we wanted to go to the MIM (Museum of Musical Instruments), but we decided to keep it for the day after. So instead we've been to the Bozar Museum, where there was an pictures exhibition about engineering, called Ingenium, and free (thanks to the national day). All the technics were represented, from the beginning of the Earth to nowadays, from the beginning of science to its drifts, and the power and strength of the nature, and the will of the human being to control them. That's a really great exhibition, and some pictures are thought-provoking. Until the 9th of September, to see absolutely.

One picture from one photographer of the exhibition :

Copyright http://alexandrepomar.typepad.com/

Then, we crossed the Mont des Arts, from which we accessed the centre of the city, with the Grand Place :


Walking around in the city, from there to the Mannekenpis, we saw something that can make anybody crazy, at one condition ...

... that you like chocolate !!

On our way back to the apartment, we crossed nice streets, full of people, either eating ...

or going for a walk in parks (here the Parc d'Egmont)

The evening, tired of this walk in the centre, we just ... did nothing. But remained Sunday, full of sunshine (too). So there we visited the MIM, where you had a headphone and could listen music by infrared signals, from each instrument you saw behind the windows, from Western instruments to Asian ones.

MIM

Indian instruments

After the MIM, we went for a french fries cornet, and then, a walk and a ride :

Statue for the Jewish's martyrs from WW2

In the Parc du Centenaire, there's the equivalent of the Brandebur Tor in Berlin, symbol of the traffic between city and countryside

This park is great with other buildings around, among them the Army Museum (but that's not really great in itself).

Then, we pass through the Parc Léopold, where is situated the European Parliament. Apparently during the days of Europe, you can visit it, but we just saw the outside of it.

Inside of the park Léopold

After that, we went to the train station as the week end almost ended. All in all, I visited too the city, under the sun and enjoyed the national day :)

(LpM)