Brussels Art Nouveau, 1

For Saturday morning we had booked a tour of Brussels art nouveau that gets you inside three different sites. The focus was on architect Viktor Horta who (?!) is here considered the father of Art Nouveau. He invented it in 1893, just after inventing sliced bread, by using metal as the structural underpinning of his work, thus opening his structures to space and light. So our guide said. Later in the tour she also mentioned MacIntosh, Gaudi, and some people in Vienna, omitting a few others who might have been involved in Art Nouveau. Personally, I thought the tour erred very much on the side of architecture. At best. Despite the promise of getting you inside. But we did see three structures and their insides.

Just walking around, you can see plenty of art
nouveau in Brussels; here, the very famous
Old England building, in the royal district

Here, exiting the gift shoppe of the Royal Museums

Nice interior

Beautiful stairwell and elevator

Originally a British insurance company office (!)

Our first stop on the tour, the Autriche House,
Horta's first commission, actually pre-Art
Nouveau, our guide explained

Rather little art nouveau on the inside

Muy famoso, however

Whiplash mosaic

The last tenants had interesting tastes

Art Nouveau at the bottom; only; that's about it

Moving right along; we are in the suburb of  Schaerbeek; this is the
entrance to the Schaerbeek beer museum; I am wondering what art
nouveau beer might have tasted like...

And now we are entering Schaerbeek's PS #1, built in Art
Nouveau style in 1907, and still a functioning public school...
pre-school through elementary

Entry ceiling

It was thought that exposing children to art was a good thing

Art Nouveau; certainly confounds the notion that art nouveau
was a thing only for the wealthy; these are publicly-funded
public schools

The grand hall..not the gym, as we thought, but a grand gathering
place; the classrooms are in adjacent buildings

Detail

Grand Hall and pre-school equipment

Brussels' Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula

So our Saturday art nouveau bus tour met by the statue of Cardinal Mercier, on the south side of the cathedral. We arrived early, as we generally do, so early in fact we thought why not a tour of the cathedral too?

Beneath the statue of Cardinal Mercier, a tour
bus will appear...

The Ecclesiastical Office Building across from the cathedral;
Brussels is often criticized for having destroyed much Flemish
and other such historically significant architecture to make
way for the glass and steel buildings of the EU's capital; the
EOB, I thought, is a good example of glass and steel and
concrete nodding to the older styles, tastefully (we have seen
similar things in, for example, San Francisco, with its (Art) Deco
Echo)

West facade of the late Brabantine Gothic
Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula

Nave view; the statues on the columns are 17th
century replacements for those knocked down by
iconoclasts in the 15th; the 12 apostles...

Thus, and a bit of the elevation

Ditto

Beautifully carved pulpit

Altar, etc.

The big glass is 15th century, very attractive and
readable

Thus

And thus

Contemporary "bird's nest" organ

Buttresses flying outside

Backside of pulpit

Beautifully carved confessionals

And, where else but Brussels? ecclesiastical cartoons!

Brussels' Chez Leon

Brussels is one of Europe's culinary capitals, where one could spend much time and money seeking out the great and the best. Being a mussels aficionado and having dined on mussels at Leon of Brussels restaurants in Paris many times in the past, I wanted only to find the mother-restaurant. Sort of like finding the mother Ikea in Stockholm. It was not difficult.

There, on the Rue des Boucherers, near the Grand Place

Chez Leon

A table for two, by a radiator, SVP

It's not New Zealand, but I am in mussels heaven

For me, a starter of poison soup (running gag); for Vicki, more
pain, SVP

My main, moules et frites; Vicki's steak and frites in view; the
steak was good, she said

Looking around; we've been at the museum all day, it's 4 in the
afternoon, but the place is not entirely deserted (I try not to shoot
people...)

The cute plastic bowls they use for discards; I thought of trying
to pilfer one...remember Paris, girls?

Looking further; note little bronze plaques on back rests...

Thus; and seafaring art

Very famous patron

Another

Infamous patron

More looking around

Belgians eat a lot of bread

Mussels cartoon...of course

Mussel sculpture

Great food, neat place