Adventures at the Marolles and the Midi Market

Yes, kind of inappropriate, especially for a cover picture of my blog post..but I thought it would grab attention. And look, it worked :) It is actually a giant painting in one of the art galleries of the Marolles area of Brussels, which I will talk about in this post. I don't know if you know, but Tintin (the cartoon character in this painting) was invented in Belgium. You can even find graffiti paintings of him all over the city center walls! Below is a picture of the actual cover of the book, which I found at the antique market later that day...

This past Sunday I got up quite early to go to the big market here in Brussels at the Gare du Midi (train station here). First, I ate a nice breakfast with the family (Spiegel-Ei (sunny-side up egg) on a  baguette with basil and ketchup of course, the normal Sunday meal…and also croissants with jam, a norm for weekends). I told the family a bit about my trip to Oostende the day before, and then headed on my way out. 

I decided to go to a the square Jeu de Baille first, since the jazz music there only lasts until noon. This is in a very nice antique store area called the Marolles. It’s kind of like the city’s hidden treasure. It is full of little cobble stone streets lined with small and large antique stores (some so small  you wonder how they can possibly fit everything in such a small space, and you have practically no room to walk, and some so big (but equally stuffed) with so many rooms and go so far back that at some point you start to wonder if it even has an end). The antiques include a lot of original African sculptures, baskets and other things imported from the Congo and areas around it, since it used to be a colony of Belgium. But then you also have some fancy antiques from 18^th century Europe, such as painted marble royal statues from France and Germany, and lots of furniture too. 

Alleyway in the Marolles

Belgian beer bar

Cute house with moped :) 

There are also a lot of cool art galleries, including one I discovered in a little alleyway. The gallery was full with only one kind of art, and a very strange type at that. Each frame had a black and white cut out of a different famous person’s head on a colorful collage-like background. But each one was similar in that the artist painted bright red lipstick on each person’s lips, giving each a special kind of grin, and then added an actual piece of women’s underwear (ranging from granny style to sexy lace thong) upside-down on each person’s head. It was quite entertaining, and very unique. One other lady in there with me just couldn’t get enough of it and kept laughing and laughing.

Also on my way to the place Jeu de Baille (I took the outdoor glass elevator down, which is always exciting:)) I passed a very talented group of old men playing jazz. They had a man on a giant bass, a xylophone, sax, and accordion.

Anyway, every weekend at Place Jeu de Baille they have a giant antique market there. The sellers, who are mostly middle-aged Moroccan men, but also some old women and Africans too, set up sheets and tables with all of their goods. It amazed me how much stuff was there. Tables with hundreds of little trinkets, including jewelry, watches, royal pins, lighters, mirrors, statues.. Everything you can think of. 

And honestly I really enjoyed looking through all the stuff. I didn’t realize how much I liked antique markets until these past two weekends (last Saturday I discovered the market they have here along the Chaussee de Waterloo, right next to my house). I loved looking at all the old things and imagining who they could have belonged to. They even have old postcards from all over Europe, which people had sent to family or friends years ago. I love reading them and finding out what they had to say.. maybe they were asking about how a sick grandmother was doing, or writing to their love… it’s like getting to know a real person from the past. I also found some gifts for family and friends… I think getting something special from an antique market makes the object have so much more meaning. You can imagine who it belonged to before and how it ended up in Brussels.. And I also got to practice my bargaining skills which is always important :)

Yes, that is a real deer head.

Lots of old coins and buttons

Original wooden African masks

Wooden sculpture chairs

Lots of brass and marble statues

A pretty bird statue

 I also got a little ring for myself. It is a small, silver pinky ring in the shape of a snake. It looks very antiquey and may even be real silver...hard to say though. But for me, the more important thing about it is its meaning. When I put it on, I feel a bit more “bad-ass” and strong, but not in an obvious way. The snake is small and still pretty looking, not scary. But I imagine myself wearing this ring on a first date with a new guy, and him noticing it and thinking “wow, this girl has a snake ring...she must be tough and not like to fool around.” I feel like the snake is my protector, and when I look at it, I remember, “I am strong, I take my life seriously.” Let’s see if it lives up to my expectations :)

The cafés surrounding the square were full with people of all ages, relaxing and drinking beer. One of them had an old man playing folk guitar, the music floating out the open bar windows into the square. There was a stand selling “Escargots et Hot Dogs” (strange combo if you ask me...but I guess it provides for the gourmands and the “not-so-adventurous”  types). 

Another tent was vending fresh “huitres” (oysters). Piles of oyster shells and empty bottles of champagne were lined up on the tables. I actually learned how to properly eat oysters here in Brussels by my friend Hieu. He brought me to a fancy brunch one Sunday morning at a hotel. It was the first time I ever drank champagne at breakfast (welcome to high-class European life). So, of course, they had oysters there, along with a large array of other kinds of seafood. Hieu showed me how to pour out the salty seawater from the shell, remove the black, inedible part, and then scrape out the meat with my knife, and finally, slurp it out of the shell. You finish the show with a sip of champagne. Apparently, champagne and oysters are the perfect aphrodisiac :)

Alleyway off of the square with a Tintin cartoon on the wall

After Jeu de Baille, I headed over the giant market at Gare du Midi. The market is situated around and under the train tracks (which are on a bridge) and it is really huge. Lines of white tents fill the area, and you can barely see the end. They are filled with every kind of fruit imaginable, as well as veggies, spices, and specialty foods such as olives, cheese and meats.

The range of different smells is overwhelming. I think if you walked through the market with your eyes closed, you could still know perfectly which stand you are passing just by breathing. The smell of ripe fruits would first hit you, then the strong, spicy whiff of spices, then a scent of fresh cilantro from the fresh herbs stand, the salty smell of dried meats, the ripe smell of French cheese… And the sounds of the market are just as harsh on your senses! The sellers there just go crazy! The fruit sellers, who are mostly middle-aged Moroccan men, stand on the tables and hold up fruits yelling at the top of their lungs things like “2 melons for 1.50 euros!” or “One package of mangos for 4 euros! Freshly imported from the Ivory Coast! Last offer!” And others just yell for the heck of it, chanting things like “Heeeyoooo” while walking around, just to get people’s attention I guess...for me it makes me want to run away.. maybe I’m just a newbie at the whole Midi market.  I even had some guy yelling at me for standing in front of his fruit stand, saying in French, “Don’t reflect so much young lady, it’s bad for your health!” I passed another table with a fat man selling watermelons. However, he was doing his job in a very strange way.. He was standing on a chair, holding up two giant watermelons and just yelling nonsense at the top of his lungs. He looked like an excited baboon who just found his dinner.

The vendors standing on tables, yelling about fruit.

Another man selling bananas and cherries had some cherries hanging off his right ear… Also most likely to attract attention and get people to buy from him. These guys really get into their work, and it is quite a show! I guess if they want to sell, they have to attract people’s attention, and they are doing what they think will best achieve that.

However, I definitely felt a little out of place there. It was full of poor looking Islamic women, dressed in long, fabric dressed and their heads wrapped in scarves. The whole market has a kind of middle eastern feel to it. Some of the stands are playing Arabic versions of popular songs, which I found quite funny. It was fun to go around to the stands, the men telling me to “gouter” (taste) the fruits, each one holding out a plate with freshly cut mango, melon or pineapple on it. I was convinced to buy a mango (only 50 cent for 1!) and some melons and nectarines. The nectarines were very very good, especially for the price (only 1 euro for 4 of them). That is the great thing about the market (and also what I heard from the other au pairs who had been there before)…that you get good fruit for cheap. Most of the fruit comes from Africa (I know this because many of the sellers were yelling things like, “Fresh, ripe Mango, direct from Africa!” and many of the boxes had the words IVORY COAST stamped on them).

I passed a stand where a little boy, maybe about 9 years old, was yelling at the top of his lungs to people to come buy the apples he was trying to sell. They start training them young I guess. I bet his father has been selling fruit at the market all his life, and now his son is doomed for the same future. I can’t even imagine what it would be like, knowing I would have to work at a fruit market, yelling all day to try and get people to buy my products...what a life.

The little boy (left side)

I finally got past all the fruit and veggie stands, and walked under the bridge, coming to the other side where the giant market continued. Large white tents covered clothing sellers, including shoes and bags. I passed one tent where a Greek man was selling freshly made Greek specialties. You can get really high-quality, home-made genuine foreign foods very easily in Brussels since the city it so international. At every market you will find stands with Africans selling spiced, barbequed meats and sauces with rice, Thai people selling fresh spring rolls and spicy curry, Greeks selling baklava and spanakopita and Egyptians selling backed lamb with dried fruits.. the list goes on and on, and all the food tastes amazing!

Passing under the bridge

Pant seller...interesting display there

Market continues towards the Midi tower

Anyway, another part of the market contained a large area where they were selling all different kinds of plants, trees and flowers. They sold fruit trees (like oranges and cherry trees) as well as exotic flowers and palm trees. I saw one women ride away on her bike with a giant meter-long vine of some flower sticking straight up out of her backpack.

I just couldn’t believe how crowded the market was. My feet kept getting run over by women hurrying along pulling their fabric grocery carriers on wheels behind them. And it was already 2:30 in the afternoon… I can only imagine what it must me like in the morning when everyone is coming to get the best fruit.

I walked father, towards the back of the market, coming to an area with a bunch of cafés and people sitting on tables outside. Spanish music was blasting (the first café on the corner was Spanish) and a man grilling kebabs just outside the door. People we just chilling there, talking and enjoying a drink and a kebab after a long day at the market.

I walked back towards the way I came, passing a waffle truck and a very happy looking old man, eating a sausage and thoroughly enjoying it.

Around the Gare du Midi, there are many rundown houses and poor neighborhoods. Many of the houses are abandoned because they are so rundown and people don't have enough money to repair them. There is also an area nearby which is know for having prostitution.. Sometimes when you are on the train and passing the station, you can even see the prostitutes lit up in their windows.

Rundown houses near Gare du Midi

I was starting to get a little hungry, and decided to check out this stand I saw back in the beginning of the market, where they had a giant grill going and a lady with a headscarf was grilling large triangles of filo dough with some kind of filling inside, and another man was serving a brownish colored tea out of a giant brass teapot. I went up to the women and asked her what was inside the triangles. “Spinach and feta” she replied. So basically, something like  spanakopita. I thought it must be good since the table and chairs around the stand were full of people happily eating it and drinking tea. I took one, and then, just out of curiosity, asked the man what kind of tea it was. It was “menthe” tea (mint), apparently it is supposed to go very well with spinach and feta flavors.

Woman making the spanakopita

Happily walking and eating, I checked the time and realized it was time for me to go back home to help out at Jonas’s birthday party! (Which I blogged about yesterday). Well, it was a nice Sunday adventure and I hope you enjoyed my post about it :) Comments are appreciated!