In 1937

I periodically do a random search for my grandfather online, hoping newspaper articles will become available to tell me more about his bike racing days.

There was a BIG picture of him in their front bedroom upstairs.  My nephew found a copy of this quite by chance as he met a descendant of the company Bonpapa ran for: Bury.  I miss him...

Today I came across such new information.

In 1937, Leon Drossart, 22, ran in the Tour de Belgique as an "Independant".

The status of "Independant" allowed amateurs of a certain caliber to compete against professionals as they gained experience. 

The Tour of Belgium for "Independants" was organized yearly between 1911 and 1964, except during the war years (14-18 and 40-45)

In 1937, the race covered 1,729km (1,074 miles) in a period of 10 days: from June 17 to June 27.  They estimated the average racing speed at 35.233 km/h (just under 22m/h).

Of 186 who registered, 162 participated.  Only 34 were classified.  It was nice to see his name among them: #30.  He came in 2h 48' 04" behind the winner Maurice Clautier.

So it took him 51h 52' 27" to cover 1,074 miles by bike...  

He often told us about the difficulties he ran into when he raced.  Flat tires had to be repaired on site. Nobody to help or to just hand you over a fresh bike...

I am pretty proud that he dared to win.  Though he fell short, I have no doubt it was an invigorating and exhausting experience.  Imagine the crowds lined up along the roads cheering for their favorite racers.

He began a professional career in 1938 so he likely had been racing for at least a couple of years already. Oh that I could go back and ask him...  now I have questions and nobody to answer them...

The race was broken down into smaller stages.

The first leg of the race was
- Brussels - Genk: 177 km - In 9th place a peloton of 29 bikers came in together...  was he one of them?

- Genk - Antwerpen: 205 km

- Antwerpen - Oostende, 175 km

- Oostende - Morlanwelz, 188 km

- Morlanwelz - Paliseul, 175 km

- Paliseul - Neufchâteau, 36 km CLM

- Neufchâteau - Luxemburg, 170 km

- Luxembourg - Liege, 208 km 

- Liege - Pont-de-Loup, 185 km

- Pont-de-Loup - Brussels, 210 km 

That's a lot of pedaling!

Sorry, I could not close the loop with Google maps (=  The map indicates a lower number, but it's likely because the roads are different today than they were 84 years ago.

I wonder if he stopped by the bakery where my grandmother worked when he reached Brussels...

So many questions still but today I gained a little appreciation for something he did...

Final Results :
1. Maurice CLAUTIER in 49h04'23"
2. Albert Dubuisson at 38" behind first
3. Joseph Van Kerckhoven at 7'54" behind first
4. Théo Van Oppen at 9'21" behind first
5. Frans Gahy at 11'55" behind first
6. Jan Staeren at 12'12" behind first
7. Oscar Giltay at 17'43" behind first
8. Rémi Rayen at 36'15" behind first
9. Robert De Bloem at  41'49" behind first
10. Maurice Houfflin  at 47'18" behind first
11. Joseph Torfs at 47'23" behind first
12. Albert Jacquet (Fra) at 47'58" behind first
13. François Van der Motten at 53'17" behind first
14. Oscar Joly at 56'17" behind first
15. Jan De Clercq at 59'24" behind first
16. André Hallaert at 1h00'56" behind first
17. Amado Feduzzi (Ita) at 1h02'45" behind first
18. Pascal Boelen at 1h06'58" behind first
19. René Van Hove at 1h07'21" behind first
20. Auguste Dejonckheere at 1h15'35" behind first
21. Frans Van Ransbeeck at 1h23'25" behind first
22. Antoine Reuten at 1h31'48" behind first
23. Frans Pauwels (Hol) at 1h42'32" behind first
24. Joseph Dominicus at 1h53'49" behind first
25. Georges Van der Gucht at 2h07'42" behind first
26. Victor Meuleman at 2h11'14" behind first
27. René Belsack at 2h11'17" behind first
28. Jules Raes at 2h40'49" behind first
29. Jan Janssens at 2h41'54" behind first
30. Léon Drossart at 2h48'04" behind first
31. Riccardo Masutti (Ita) at 3h06'04" behind first
32. Henri Borry at 3h49'37" behind first
33. Jean Drion at 3h54'39" behind first
34. Edouard Delizée at 5h 07' 55" behind first

June already!

Can’t believe it’s June already!
Where have these past months gone to?!

I had really hoped to devote more time to learning the ropes of a blog but here we are again in the middle of baseball season… This is our last year of Little League.
We never thought we would see the day, but we are.
Michael has had some success this year and this has made things somewhat more pleasant. He got to pitch the last game they played and only threw 46 pitches in 5 innings to win the game 8-2. He pitched a no hitter! Even had a ‘perfect’ game into the 3rd or 4th inning when he hit a batter and caused he walked.
Oh well…

Our little town of Peru, IN had a fire that burned down a furniture store located next to the Circus building that is a big tourist attraction every summer. This has put a real damper on things although it is nice watching the acrobats practice on the river front. It’s almost like stepping back in time.
They say they’ll not be using the building this year so they have to improvise and his will no doubt mean lost revenues and extra bills.

This reminded me so much of those times when my father took Hélène and me to the Jean Richard Circus. It was always in a tent. I can’t remember if we went to see this one but the Bouglione Circus is quite important in Belgium.

This year marks an anniversary in Belgium… that of the 1958 Brussels World Fair, the one that saw the birth of the Atomium.
http://www.bluebrussels.com/pictures/atomium/flickr.php

For the occasion the monument was spruced up and is more beautiful than ever.
I found some beautiful pictures on Flickr but I’m pretty sure they’re copyrighted.
There was an article published online a couple of days ago about the often overlooked beauty of Belgium, but they also pointed out how expensive things are for the American tourist right now with the exchange rate being so disadvantageous.

I am content working with the Archives and FamilySearch to get the records online – when that happens – as traveling to Belgium is becoming less and less likely every year.

This year the animals the kids brought us had babies: 8 puppies in January and 7 kittens 3 weeks later!!! It was a zoo here… We are now down to 4 cats and 4 dogs… better than 10 of each!!!

Next time I write I’m try to compose something special about Belgium or Liege.

The Real Syrup from Liege

As I was saying earlier I was looking for Christmas presents…

There is a place full of little treasures that I ended up ordering from…
The Belgian Shop at www.belgianshop.com
You will be greeted by the typical beer. I’m not a beer drinker. Not a drinker at all in fact. Not very Belgian you will say… That’s ok… goes with changing some traditions for newer ones that fit more with my beliefs.
Anyway, don’t let the beer deter you from entering. There are treasures there.
Chocolates, cheeses, waffles, and all sorts of things The only thing I cringed at was the $20 shipping fee but they offered the largest selection of the widest variety of Belgian chocolates. Another site for chocolates is www.chocosphere.com but they don’t offer as many choices and they are more expensive per item so I suppose it evens out in the end, unless you only by a couple of things…

Still there were NO chachas at either site… Oh well…

But I found the "Big Nuts"
and the scrumptious "Zeros"

that Meurisse only makes during the Winter…

I can’t wait… Those melt in your mouth twice… incredible… Must try to understand…
But what am I saying… I can’t eat any of it… It’s all for the kids… well… maybe I’ll sneak a piece… Can’t hurt – I hope…

One thing they also carry that I want to share a few words about today is Meurens’ delicious Sirop de Liège.

They give “A little history”, which I will copy here. http://shop.belgianshop.com/acatalog/Sirop_de_Liege.html

Like most industies, syrup factory has its origins in traditional craft.

History teaches us that as early as the 17th century, many farmers from the Herve region had a copper boiler and a press which they used to make syrup, thus enhancing the value of the apples and pears from their orchards. That syrup was then sold at the same time as the other farm products.

The first signs of the industrialization of syrup-making started to show around 1880-1890, when steam-cooking was first tried out and hydraulic presses began to appear. These two major innovations allowed for the syrup-making of larger quantities of fruit, and this is how the first syrup-making firms were born.
Audacy and ambition

The "beautiful story" of Sirop de Liège dates back to the beginning of our century, in 1902! Clément Meurens, the first of that ilk, left his father's farm to become, as he firmly hoped, "a real professional of syrup spread".

For him, it was out of the question to make fruit spread just for his friends and neighbors.
Looking ahead, he dreamed of distributing his syrup on a big scale, without skimping on the means. To achieve his aim, he decided to install his firm in Aubel, next to the railway and the station. It immediately became apparent that with the railway he could stock up easily and directly with raw materials, and efficiently distribute his finished product. Clément Meurens was one of those ambitious men who dared to take risks and think big. He also launched himself successfully into the making of POMONA®, an apple and sugar beet syrup, together with POIRET®, a delicious apple and pear syrup, with no added sugar (these products are almost a hundred years old...).

In 1922, the son of Meurens, Clément II, joined the factory. He shared his father's attraction to business and sought to improve again the taste of the fruit spreads, trying out new mixtures and blends...

In 1937, he devised the famous recipe for the "Sirop de Poires du pays de Liège". But the war rapidly intervened, bringing with it problems of supply.

So, it was only in 1947 that he registered the trade name, nicely personalized as the "Vrai" SIROP DE LIÈGE! At that time, Clément II was also looking for an "image" to represent his brand new product. As dynamic and enterprising as ever, he did not hesitate to call on a draughtsman from Brussels who was very popular at the time, and who, in the spring of 1947, sketched the wonderful blossoming pear trees of the Aubel region that we can still see today on the packaging of "VRAI SIROP DE LIÈGE "®.

Here is their home site: http://www.sirop-de-liege.com/

Available in 4 different flavors now...

NOTHING like it in this world! MUST try!

End of the Year Traditions...

November in Belgium fills the stores with toys, like here, because in Belgium people celebrate St Nicolas day on December 6th… So parents start taking the kids to the stores early to meet St Nicolas to tell him what they wish for him to bring them on that day.
Unlike the American Santa who is jolly old man who lives in the North Pole…
St Nicolas is a Catholic bishop who really lived years and years ago and who had a reputation for his goodness towards children.
There are many legends about him. Here is the one I was told while I was growing up.
Harvest time was over and poor people had permission to go through the fields to glean whatever was left behind by the farmers. One family had sent their three sons who had walked quite a way from home and decided to stop at the next village rather than walk home as night time was setting in. They knocked on the butcher’s door who reluctantly agreed to let them stay the night. The man had bad intentions on his mind however as they soon found out. Shortly after a meager dinner he did away with them and stored them up in his meat locker.
Later that night Saint Nicolas came knocking on his door too. Our ‘friend’ the butcher was much more pleasant with Saint Nicolas than he had been with the three little boys. Truth is… He KNEW… He unmasked the butcher for the killer that he was and restored them to life.
Saint Nicolas often pairs up with a more sinister character, named Whipping Father, whose job it is to punish the kids who have misbehaved.
On December 5th, little children place their shoes in front of the chimneys before going to bed. In their shoes they leave a carrot and some sugar cubes for Saint Nicolas’ mule and glass of wine to warm the good man.
Stories have been told since the 12th century that a disguised Saint Nicolas goes from house to house, during the night between December 5th and December 6th to ask children if they have been obedient. Good children are rewarded with present and candy while the wicked children receive a spanking from Saint Nicolas’ companion.
In Belgium, it is also a tradition to give big Saint Nicolas gingerbread cookies, fruits, marzipan, chocolate and nuts.
There are many places you will be able to find recipes to make your own or you could purchase the mold and make your very own with your favorite recipe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speculaas

Can someone ever remain totally true to his birthplace?
Is there disloyalty in establishing new traditions?
Languages become dead languages when they do not allow for the inclusion of new words, whether these words come from blending cultures or new technological developments.
So do we also doom ourselves to death when we close our minds to new thoughts, new traditions, new friendships, new futures?
mmm… Not quite sure what brought this on this morning…
I have lived in the US for almost 30 years now, have raised 5 children in the rural Midwest, have experienced annual Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners with family, Deer season -which for a European is not always an easy thing to understand-, High School graduations –another odd tradition- , weddings, funerals,…
People do things differently here…
My sister seemed taken back that in Georgia the Governor asked the people of the state to pray for rain… This would not happen in Belgium…
Come to think of it, with all this mess over the Blue Orange in Belgium right now, I wonder if it had happened here, someone would have stepped in and suggested the country should begin praying that the statesmen find a way to mend fences and make things work…
That’s not the ‘Belgian way’ though… must be a leftover from the Celtic days…
But that seems to be ironing itself out… The Belgians do things their own way… that’s for sure…

The Guillemins Train Station

The Guillemins train station in Liege brings back a bag full of memories: going to Maestricht to the dentist..., going to Koln with some friends, taking the train to Luneburg (ride I thought would never end!), going to Ostend to pick up the Malle to Dover when I was 13 (with a fellow passenger's pet monkey entertaining us!...), waiting in the cafe-restaurant...

But it also reminds me of car washes when Dad would take the Simca and my sister and I marvelled at the soap covering the windows, then the water... the smell of the fresh clean car...

I also remember being forgotten there when I returned from England...

The first Guillemins Station was built in 1842. There has been a rail link between Malines and Liège since 1837, but it ended at Ans due to a steep incline (± 450 feet) which had to be negotiated in order to reach the center of the city. This incline, built by Henri Maus enabled trains to finally travel as far as Liège from 1842 onward. The method involved towing the trains from the valley up to the Ans plateau. During the descent, great reliance was placed on the brakes of the train.

The Guillemins station was considerably enlarged in 1881, then again in 1905 at the time of the World Fair. The modern station as we now know it dates from 1956.
http://www.euro-liege-tgv.be/

A century after the 1905 World Fair in Liège, when it was a dominant player in the world's industrial scene, a new monument to engineering progress is scheduled for completion, heralding a new era of promise.

This is the vast arching roof structure of the new Calatrava TGV station in Liège. Like the wing of a giant sea ray, the roof, about the size of ten football fields, will rise above the station creating a new Crystal Palace.

The station is still under construction and maybe someday it will look like this video shows. This is dreamlike... not reality... but oh how beautiful... I can't seem to picture where exactely the streets I remember will be but then again it seems this is the prototype not the finished product which is not quite up to the design...

Still... watch this video and slow down... imagine arriving into this train station... I bet Harry Potter would fancy it too...

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1kwny_la-gare-de-liegeguillemins_tech

Once a Liegeois, always a Liegeois...

Ask my husband and he will tell you how stubborn I can be.
He says he knows that when I get a certain look on my face, he better move over because I'm ploughing through.
He affectionately refers to me as his "Belgian bulldog"
I don't mind.
I am Belgian, but like any self-respecting Belgian will tell you, I'm not just Belgian...
In spite of the fact that my ancestors come from all 3 language regions that make up Belgium, my heart belongs to Liege. At well over 1,000 years of age, it is a vibrant city whose past is rich in triumphs and defeats that gave Liege its character, its strength, its resilience.
Its mascott is Tchantches, also a champion of loss causes...
These past few years I have come to believe we do inherit regional traits from the areas we come from, the places where we grow up...
I emigrated to the US about 30 years ago and have since adopted this country as my own, but there are undeniable ties that often make me feel very different from the people I live with today. Sure I have an accent when I speak... it becomes more pronounced with the years, funny enough... For many years that bothered me as I strived to blend in with everyone, even though I never succeeded... Today I see it as what makes me who I am and that is just fine.
All this talk of Belgium disappearing off the political face of the Earth really troubles me.
My father felt the people of Belgium don't really care about the linguistic barrier. It's a handful of politicians who seem bound on destroying the balance...
In a world where technology brings us in daily contact with people from all over the world, and where people are building rapports of cooperation and goodwill, isn't it time the Belgians start looking at what they have in common rather than at what separates them.
Digging through their family history is bound to show there is no 100% Walloon or 100% Fleming...
Let's fly the flag of truce and restore unity so the national motto can once again prove to hold: "Unity makes us strong"
As to the blog, I'll attempt to tell you about going to school in the big city in the 1970's.
You'll see that it was not that different from school in the US...