April Fool's Day and Brussels!

Yes, I forgot it is April Fool's day. In France it is called Poisson d'Avril. The kids cut up little paper cut outs of fish and tape it on your back. Unsuspecting teachers walk around like this for a few minutes before the giggles start and give the joke away. Here are some pictures from my Belgium trip since I am still trying to narrow down the USA trip pictures for now. I have no idea why the above text is in blue! Blogger is really doing a number on me!

First picture is at La Grande Place in Brussels at night of course!
Belgium is known for its cartoons. Here is Tintin and Captain Haddock painted on the side of a building on a street.
The metro in Brussels, yep, I love those metros!
This is a picture of a memorial to the Belgian Congo. The history is very sad and the monument was very moving. For those of you who don't know, my mother was born and raised in the Belgian Congo, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, so this was a very interesting part of my visit to Brussels, Belgium.
This is the atomium built for an Expo. It is huge! This is a night view from the ground about 1 kilometer away from the base.
This is a train that has been refitted to be a bar! Notice the palm tree to the left of the wagon and the toon character decorations.

Here we are inside the bar. One can order all kinds of drinks in a bottle. I tried to order a drink in a bottle, but my cousin and Abdellah got the last ones. Oh well! It was fun trying!


Here is a street in Brussels...I liked the shape of the bench. Also notice how grey and cold it is!
We were freezing and the temperature only made those wonderful warm Belgian waffles and delicious hot chocolate oh so much more tempting!

While on a walk, we noticed these no-tow zone stickers. Notice the grafitti that someone scribbled on the towed car :-)
Voilà! Oh boy! There is a naked peeing boy!

Here is the famous beloved little boy...the peeing statue. He sometimes is nude like in the photo and other times is wearing a costume sponsored by different associations, clubs or groups. We had just missed him wearing an Irish costume since it was the day after St. Patrick's Day.

La Grande Place in the daytime.
This is by far THE best French fries I have ever tasted. Maison Antoine has delicious sandwiches, some are known as Mitraillettes and French fries. We waited outside in the cold and ate outside in the cold. This little shack is well known and well visited by stars and celebrities just like our famous home grown Pink's in Los Angeles. Maison Antoine also has many many choices for sauces and snacks to accompany your large cone of fries or your large sandwich. The portions are enormous...thank goodness because it was soo cold! And the prices were very reasonable, unlike Paris!

Thanks for reading and looking! I will try to get more pictures up from my Stateside visit in February next week. Happy April Fool's and happy Spring!

Bisous and love from Paris!

Grace