The Travel Bug has flown off on yet another holiday, this time staying in the beautiful Ixelles neighbourhood of Brussels. As TTB has never been to Belgium before, he was looking forward to learning about the people and their culture, so took a wee trip off on his own (when he was sure his humans weren’t paying attention…) and went out to find some Belgian bugs and three fascinating facts. This is what he discovered:
The Ixelles Ponds are the only two remaining bodies of water in the neighbourhood which were not drained. They now represent a very important and beautiful area of the municipality, and area surrounded by beautiful art deco and art nouveau town houses. The water isn’t particularly clean, though, and people (and bugs) are not allowed contact with the water. The Travel Bug spotted lots of ducks living there, so he figured it must be a nice place to settle. He didn’t want to picnic there (although the ponds are a very popular family area), because he was afraid that the Ixelles Ducks would steal his lunch…
The wonderfully glamorous Audrey Hepburn, famous for her iconic role in Truman Capote’s ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s, was born on Rue Keyenveld 48 in 1929. Her childhood home now displays a plaque outside. The Travel Bug also found out that she’s not even really called Audrey Hepburn. Her real name was Audrey Kathleen Ruston. She also had a pet deer, which TTB just thinks is odd. Why have a deer when you can have a ladybug??
When you see Ixelles on the map of Brussels, it’s actually split into two parts, with the Central Brussels region dividing it. When the beautiful Avenue Louise was designed in 1874, Ixelles wasn’t part of the city and complained about the construction of the new street. After years of being unable to resolve which part of Brussels the street would be included in, it was finally grabbed away from Ixelles by the City Region, thus accounting for the fact that street now runs through Ixelles, technically splitting it in half. Never argue with your neighbours. They can be really mean.
Do you have any more fascinating facts about Ixelles for The Travel Bug?
