Autumn 2014 • n°7 expat time - ING Belgium...Belgium for 14 years and came, as many people do,...

expat time

Autumn 2014 • n°7

Essential lifestyle and business insights for foreign nationals in Belgium

IN THIS ISSUERenovating your home

Sparkling wine in surprising locations

Belgian design in our daily lives

INTERVIEW

“This could be a very contentious period in Brussels” PETER SPIEGELFinancial Times Brussels bureau chief

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Harvest time

With autumn nights drawing in, comfort at home becomes even more important. In this issue of Expat Time we focus on the challenge of renovating that charm-ing old house or apartment. Read about

the experiences of our expats and learn what experts have to say about the process. We also provide pointers to help guide you on the path to a successful re-build, and columnist Derek Blyth chips in with his own take on building and renovation in Belgium.

This time of year is the busiest for winemakers. We visit some of the burgeoning vineyards in southeast England, a corner of Flanders and Wallonia, and Luxembourg’s Moselle valley. White and sparkling wines are a particular speciality for all these wineries. If you fancy tasting the wines of Sussex, our regular neighbourhood guide zooms in on some interesting places to visit while you’re there.

In our cover interview, Peter Spiegel, the Financial Times’ Brussels bureau chief, discusses the volatility of international relations and the challenges facing the new European Parlia-ment.

Also in the spotlight this edition is the best of Belgian design in the exhibition The Power of Object(s) at ING’s cultural space. It’s part of Design September, a wide-ranging event held each autumn all over Brussels. With the cultural season well under way, there’s a huge choice of art exhibitions and other events to tempt you out of your home.

Dave DeruytterHead of expatriates and non-residents ING [email protected]/expat

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expat time • autumn • 2014 • 3

IN THIS ISSUE

Editor • Sarah CrewDeputy editor • Sally TipperArt director • Tine Van Beurden and NadrukProject coordinator • Thomas BuytaertContributors • Emma Beddington • Derek Blyth • Jon Eldridge • Deborah Forsyth• Katrien Lindemans • Georgio ValentinoCover • Peter Spiegel, by Bart DewaeleSales executive • Helena VreedenburghAccount executive • Evelyne Fregonese

Expat Time is a publication fromING BELGIUM SA/NV, Marnixlaan 24,1000 Brussel, RPR BrusselVAT BE 403.200.393 and Ackroyd Publications SA/NVEditorial • Content Connections (department of Ackroyd NV) and ING BELGIUM SA/NVPublisher • Hans De Loore, Gossetlaan 30 1702 Groot-Bijgaarden

GET CONNECTED

6 Meet four expats living in Belgium

INTERVIEW

8 Peter Spiegel reveals the inside story as a foreign correspondent in Brussels

BUSINESS

14 How to fine-tune your networking skills

AGENDA

16 Our pick of upcoming culture in Brussels

PROPERTY

18 Getting the builders in: three expats talk about their experiences

AGENDA

24 Cultural highlights around Belgium and beyond

LIFESTYLE

26 Award-winning sparkling wines close to home

NEIGHBOURHOOD

30 Eat, drink and explore the wine region of Sussex

COMMENT

32 Emma Beddington looks back at the news and Derek Blyth muses on life in Belgium

SPOTLIGHT

34 Belgian design exhibition in Brussels

P5, 31 Nedda El-Asmar

P8-13 Bart Dewaele

P15 © Corbis

P16 Peter Paul Rubens, Pan and Syrinx, 1617

oil on panel, Staatliche Museen Kassel,

photo Ute Brunzel

P17 Accessible Art Fair, The Wings Light,

Gauthier Poulain; The Notebook, Tim

Etchells; Ars Musica © Anne Baraquin/

Sofam; Echolalia © Ana Torfs

P18 © Ikon Images/Corbis

P24 Image courtesy of the artist

P25 Betrayal, Nevel, installation Lawrence

Malstaf © Dirk Pauwels

P30 © VisitBritain/Rod Edwards/Tourism

South East

P31 Monk’s House © National Trust Images/

Caroline Arber; Bateman’s © National

Trust Images/Andreas von Einsiedel;

High Street © Visit Britain

P32 Juan Carlos © Eloy Alonso/Reuters/Cor-

bis; World Cup © Shinji Akagi/Far East

Press/AFLO/Nippon News/Corbis; World

War One © Yves Herman/Reuters/Corbis

Photo credits

8INTERVIEW

Peter Spiegel reports from the EU frontlineThe American Financial Times

journalist on the challenges facing

Europe

18PROPERTY

Home renovationThe pros and the pitfalls of

creating your dream home

26LIFESTYLE

Bottling the bubbly Vineyards in southern England,

Belgium and Luxembourg are

enjoying sparkling success

expat time • autumn • 2014 • 5

get in touch

Adv_Goss_Expat Time_19,8x27,5.indd 1 11/09/14 17:37

Lorna Payne“I find people very open and friendly, but it would be difficult if I didn’t speak French”“I work as a business development director for REALCO, a Belgian SME in Louvain-La-Neuve specialising in enzymatic detergents for decon-tamination and biofilm removal. I’m responsible for the development and commercialisation of a new product range in the medical sector. I’ve been in Belgium on and off for the past 16 years. In between, I’ve lived in South Africa and Italy. I first came to Brussels on a work assign-ment, but I now live in a rural village just outside Namur, the capital of Wallonia. Namur is not as cosmopolitan as Brussels and speaking French is compulsory, but the town and surrounding area is picturesque and there are plenty of great restaurants. My husband is francophone and we have two African grey parrots who are bilingual French and English! I find people very open and friendly, but it would be difficult if I didn’t speak French. The cost of housing is definitely lower than in the UK and there is more potential to build your own house (which is what we did). But everyday living expenses are high, coupled with high taxes, and the service, generally, is not great.”

Lorna is from Cardiff in South Wales. She and her Belgian husband live in the village of Lives-sur-Meuse, near Namur

Achin Batra“Belgium’s location is useful for access to other European countries”“As a senior SAP consultant, my work involves guiding customers to achieve an efficient solution for management and operational reporting environments. My work in performance management also involves providing expertise in designing the company’s Enterprise Data Warehouse for different customers. I have lived in Belgium for 14 years and came, as many people do, for professional reasons. My wife is self-employed and works in the catering industry. We enjoy the good quality

of life in Belgium and the great benefits for kids, in both educa-tion and medicine. Its strategic location is useful for access

to other European countries. The less positive elements are the high and complex tax regime, the division

between Flemish and francophone communities, bad customer service especially in Brussels, lack of power to exercise citizen’s rights and the unstable weather.”

Achin and his wife are both of Indian origin and live with their 18-month-old son in Everberg, near Kortenberg, in Flemish Brabant

Profiles •

Get connectedFour expats tell us about how they came to Belgium

Chris comes from Sussex in England. With his French wife, Caty, he has lived in Central America, Africa and the US. They both have dual British/French nationality, and they have two daughters, who live in Switzerland and England

Chris Trapman“We appreciate the quality of life here in the broadest sense”“I’m the manager of Belgium’s national rugby sevens team, which includes responsibility for helping the team achieve excellence at the highest level of this most recent of Olympic sports. Belgium is now competing for the first year in European rugby’s Grand Prix Series, and I accompany the team on matches abroad. My wife, Caty, and I moved to Belgium in 2001, following Belgian friends we’d met in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Our daughter was also studying in Louvain-la-Neuve at the time. After five years in Dinant, we now live in Jambes. We appreciate the quality of life here in the broadest sense: the friendliness of the Belgian people, and the national characteristics of looking for a solution to every sort of problem and modesty in spite of international excellence in many domains. The ease of travelling within the country and to the rest of Europe is definitely a benefit. On the downside, the weather is not great (although no worse than the UK), there are high levels of personal income tax and the national political framework is complex.”

Marcia Kammitsi“I’ve always been drawn to this city due to its international vibe”“I came to Brussels because of work, first in 2004 for two years, and then I returned in January 2013. I’m a programme manager at the European Commission, working on structural funds specifically for the European Social Fund. However, I’ve always been drawn to this city due to its international vibe and its people, its good quality of life and its proximity to a great number of places to visit. I live in the centre of Brussels and this is a very lively area, with great pubs, cafes, shops, ethnic restaurants and music venues. It’s near a cinema and a bike path along the canal, and it hosts some very interesting eclectic art events. You can find everything from a designer shop to second-hand stores to furniture shops. It’s an area where you really feel the neighbour-hood atmosphere and you actually do know your neighbours! What I like about Belgium is its location, healthcare and food. I don’t like the weather (of course) and at times the bureaucracy, even though eventually one gets used to all this paperwork.”

Marcia is from Cyprus and lives in the Sainte-Catherine area of Brussels

6 • expat time • autumn • 2014 expat time • autumn • 2014 • 7

Award-winning foreign correspondent Peter Spiegel is the Financial Times’ Brussels bureau chief, filing in-depth

analysis of EU affairs. The American journalist’s extensive CV includes stints at the Wall Street Journal and Los Ange-les Times, and he has reported from war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. For the past four years, Spiegel, his wife and two young children have been based in Brussels, enjoying family life, fine food and Flemish art.

What can we expect from the new European Parlia-ment and Commission?

I have the feeling we’re not going to see a huge number of new policies. EU policy is still largely dictated out of Ber-lin and there’s not much change there. The Merkel government is of the view that a return to growth is through fiscal consolidation – cutting spending, raising taxes, bringing down debt. It’s not just about austerity; it’s about liberalising the economy, particularly labour laws

Hold the front page

By Sarah Crew Photos by Bart Dewaele

The Financial Times’ Peter Spiegel on the EU, Ukraine and news in an online era

“The US has been much more hard-line on Russia than the Europeans”


Interview •

ING’s Dave Deruytter talking to Peter Spiegel

in places like France, Italy and Belgium. Italy is an obvious case as it has one of the largest economies in the world, yet foreign direct investment is the lowest in Europe. So the argument is that Italy does not really need austerity, it needs economic liberalisation. Matteo Renzi, the new prime minister, and François Hollande of France have struggled and are trying to change the agenda. Germany still dominates the conversa-tion and during the height of the crisis there were rules put in place that can’t be changed. These force countries into budget cutting and economic liberalisa-tion policies that are not hugely popular in France and Italy.

The question is, what does this lead to? It’s a very different parliament now; about a third is either anti-Europe or anti-euro. What happens when more of the same comes? Do we see a rebellion within some of the mainstream parties because the socialist centre-left party is not on board with what’s happening to EU policy? The two biggest parties in the socialist camp are Hollande’s socialist and Renzi’s democratic party. What happens if they rebel against the commission? It could be a very conten-tious period in Brussels. One of the big changes is Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the commission. This is not a man without a record or a man who comes into office as a person likely to change things. It’s something the Finan-cial Times will be following very closely.

What’s the EU’s role in a global crisis?

I think we were naive to think that after 1989 Europe would finally arrive at a place that was united and in peace. The immediate crisis and the one that that will challenge Europe the most is Ukraine. For the past 25 years, EU policymakers had assumed Russia was a partner; it wanted to join the World Trade Organisation, it was in Nato’s Partnership in Peace, it joined European institutions and seemed to want to play as another European power. What we are seeing now is that Russia no longer believes that. And Europe is struggling to respond. One official I talked to said, “We saw people in the streets of Kiev waving the EU flag. How can we now allow Russia to carve up Ukraine because of the pro-European decision they made?” We have elements within the EU that strongly believe this. It prob-ably means arming the Ukrainians, the deployment of troops in the Baltics and Poland; we are talking Cold War-era policies.

But not everyone is on board. We have a lot of reluctance among the Germans. Given their history with the Russians, they don’t want to be particularly antagonistic, so I think Europeans are really going to struggle on this one. As for the institutions being well-situated to deal with this, I remain sceptical. Of all the European competencies, foreign policy is the hardest to coordinate. It goes to the core of what sovereignty is about: protecting your own people.

This is very difficult, especially among the three big players, Britain, Germany and France. They all have very diverging interests and views on how to approach Russia. But it’s been surprising to see how quickly the Europeans have been able to move on Ukraine; the sanctions they have imposed on Russia are very serious. It took them a long time to get there, but this shows the importance of Germany. When Merkel decided Vladimir Putin had lied to her, she decided it was time for sanctions. So whether this is the institutions acting, or Germany as the leader of Europe act-ing, Europe has moved on Ukraine. There are other issues that are obvi-ously going to affect us over the next few years. Instability in North Africa is not just about migration – in countries like Italy you are having boats arrive on the doorstep from Libya – but this is a region where there is a generational

challenge. We have a situation in North Africa where either democracy or ex-tremism are going to take control, and if the militants take control this is going to lead to instability on our southern border. I don’t think Europe has really engaged with that; the US has also failed to engage. Egypt is the most im-portant country in North Africa; it had a proper revolution where a democratic government was elected and put in place, and what happened? We ignored it and the military stepped in, and now we have a military dictatorship. How did we let that happen?

More concerning in the short term are Iraq, Syria and the Middle East, because

of the potential threat here. Belgium has, per capita, the most citizens fight-ing in Syria. We saw what happened at the Jewish Museum in Brussels and this is an example of a foreign fighter going to Syria, becoming radicalised and com-ing home and committing heinous acts on our own territory. The British are very concerned, as are the French. This is going to be an issue that really hits home politically. We are all countries now that have a very large Muslim population. While the vast majority are here for economic opportunity and want to become integrated in society, there is a minority who are becoming radicalised and have travelled to fight in Iraq and Syria with the most extreme elements, and Europe doesn’t really have a response for that yet.

How do you view the rela-tionship between the EU and the US?

President Obama came in with a lot of expectations, partly because of the fall-out over the Iraq war during the Bush

administration. There has been a lot of disappointment that he hasn’t lived up to the expectation and it’s frankly got worse because of two or three issues. One is the spying scandal, when the US was found to be listening in to Merkel’s phone calls and hoovering up massive amounts of data on Europeans’ phone calls and internet traffic. This was unex-pected from an ally.

The US has been much more hard-line on Russia than the Europeans. There is a lot of grumbling that it’s all well and good for the Americans as they’re not reliant on Russia for their energy or ex-ports. The European economy has just been through the most brutal economic recession since the Great Depression, and the feeling is that the Americans don’t get that.

The third issue is the big EU-US trade deal that everyone had hoped would be completed by the end of the year. It’s proven far more difficult than expected, and there’s a lot of bad blood right now, which isn’t helping things. There

“It’s surprising how quickly the Europeans have moved on Ukraine”

“For my generation of correspondents, China is the story”


Interview •

has been a lot of hand-wringing since 1989 about the transatlantic relation-ship. Should Americans go home and stop playing with the Europeans?

How is the Financial Times responding to the online era?

The big innovation was a metered approach to our website. If you go online, you get 20 stories for free but if you want more, you pay; if you want to get the entire website, you pay quite a bit. At first people thought this model wouldn’t work, because online content was either free or paid-for, but it has been very success-ful. We were the first, and the New York Times and other papers now do this too. As we’re a financial paper, people have to read us, particularly the markets, banks and people who participate in the economy, as there are only a couple of trustworthy news organisations. For the past 18 months we’ve had more subscribers online, 600,000, than we do in print. While we still get most of our money from the print side, at some point we’re going to make more money online. Video has been very popular with

advertisers and we have an entire TV studio in the London office. We like to argue that our brand is a trusted source at a time when people are bombarded by 80 million different sources of news.

The FT has taken a two-tier approach to news coverage. There is news that’s free on the internet and widely avail-able, and for that we have the Fast FT team, which throws together three or four paragraphs that are free on the web and stay there for a few hours, but you’re not going to see this in the newspaper. This frees up foreign correspondents like myself to do the stuff you’re not going to get else-where. Some of it is scoops, some of it news that we learn before anyone else does, and a lot of it is the in-depth reporting that you’re just not going to get elsewhere. I did a series before the EU elections in May called ‘How the euro was saved’. The FT gave me six months and a relatively unlimited travel budget to go to Washington, Berlin, Paris, Rome and Athens to talk to dozens of current and former prime ministers, finance ministers and cen-tral bankers who participated in the eurozone crisis. We ran it at 12,000

words, and it’s still one of the most-read items on our website in 2014. We want to focus on the high-end, value-added information that you’re not going to get elsewhere because of the access we get as the FT.

What do you do in your free time?

I’m a huge sports fan and my great love is baseball, which is a bit hard to follow here, but I now get every game on my iPad, which I attach to a big screen. I believe that becoming a part of the sports scene is a great way to learn about the country you’re in. When I moved to Britain more than 10 years ago, I became a big football fan and Arsenal supporter. That’s where you see the English in their environment. I even started going to cricket matches, because it’s not so different to baseball. So here in Belgium it’s been football, and it’s been nice to be here when the Red Devils have done so well.

I don’t think you’re an expat if you don’t like travelling. Our favourite destination, for sentimental reasons, is Italy. We had our honeymoon in Tuscany, our fifth anniversary on the

Amalfi coast, our 10th anniversary in the Italian lakes. We’ve travelled around the world, but one reason we like travelling in Europe is that we’re both art aficionados, having studied art history. In Belgium we like the Flem-ish primitives in particular; there is an argument that the Renaissance came to Flanders before Italy. We like to find new art museums, and see pieces we haven’t seen before.

What advice would you offer to expats arriving in Belgium?

The most important thing about living abroad is finding a partner who likes challenges. I am blessed by having a wife who is very tolerant. My French is still very weak and my interaction with the Belgian authorities is limited. It’s my wife who’s the French-speaker and she’s the one who has to deal with Belgian bureaucracy. Foreign correspondents are a self-selecting group of people who are adventurous and want to learn about the world; you have to be outgoing to want to become part of the country you’re living in. I think people who are unsuccessful in moving to foreign countries are those who try to associate

only with people like themselves. You’re not benefitting from the country you’re in, and you’ll suffer because you’re not going to figure out how the country really functions.

I must say Belgians are among the most welcoming people we’ve ever expe-rienced. Belgium gets a bad rap, but we really enjoy it here. It’s a multilin-gual country which is very tolerant of foreigners. We sent our kids to Belgian schools and most of the parents are Belgians, but they’re Belgians married to Germans or Italians, so everyone has a relative or a spouse who’s from some-where else, so we don’t feel that exotic, even as Americans. The best decision we ever made was putting our son into a Belgian school. He was three when we got here and he picked up French within six months and is now fluent. He’s really thrived in the Belgian system.

Brussels is a great place for families. We’re in our mid-40s with young children, and it may not be the most exciting city in the world, but we’re not the most exciting people. It’s perfect for where we are in our life right now. Kids are always welcome in restaurants and public places; the schools and health-

care are great. It really is a perfect place to have a family. And the side benefits are fantastic, such as the food. I always order waterzooi if it’s on the menu. But the bureaucracy is just painful, es-pecially for non-EU citizens. Immigration policies in Europe and my country have become much tougher. If you come from here, you know which rules are really important and which aren’t. As an expat you don’t know, so you have to do everything: whatever you do, it’s the one you don’t think is important that they’re going to nail you on. The ease of using services, governmental and non-governmental, has been frustrating, but that’s not just an expat thing, that’s true for all Belgians. The internet economy has not really arrived in Belgium.

And what about the future for you?

I would love one more foreign posting. For my generation of correspondents, China is the story, from a geopolitical, economic and social viewpoint. Everything about China is fascinating, so I would love to go to Beijing. The problem with two small children is that it’s the most pol-luted city in the world, so we’re debating whether it would be a good move.

“Belgians are among the most welcoming people we’ve ever experienced”


Business •

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and their like rule the networking scene today. Indeed, clever use of social media can lead to efficiency

gains and extra income in business. But we shouldn’t ignore the traditional networking tools of meeting people, learning about their priorities and help-ing them, while appropriately position-ing your services.

Consider the key principle of network-ing: it is indeed about giving, about helping – at least it is if you want to build a relationship. For a ‘one-shot’ transaction, the hard sell may some-times do the trick. But the buyer will eventually discover the ‘deceit’, and starting a long-term relationship will be hard if not impossible. Another impor-tant aspect is the follow-up. Without it,

nothing will ever happen. You could say life is like a vending machine: you only get something out if you put something in, and the more you put in, the more you’ll get out.

Most business gurus advise only doing business with a party you like, trust and respect. So, if you want to be liked, trusted and respected – and therefore gain business – you’d do well to start conversations by showing an interest in who the other person is and what their goals are. You can of course steer the talk towards your own objectives later, but if there is no interest, make sure to stop before you’ve killed the conversation and the fledgling relation-ship. Don’t move too quickly: people like to do business with someone they really know, and that doesn’t happen overnight.

So, there you are standing alone at a networking event, in a big room where you know nobody. Why not approach a table where there is another single per-son, looking just as lost as you are, and introduce yourself. If the conversation stalls and seems to be going nowhere, you can tell them “It was nice talking to you, but I am trying to meet a few more people here tonight, so please excuse me,” and move on to the next table. After you’ve talked to other people, you could even go back to the first one, to get introduced to who they are now talking to. Or you might have met two people who you think should meet and introduce them to each other.

After a few appearances at events held by the same organisation, you’ll start to get to know people, and networking becomes much easier.

Often you can get the list of attendees from the organiser; armed with that information, LinkedIn, for example, can help you find out who those attendees are and what they do. Sometimes you will get the list in advance, making your

preparation a lot easier. If not, you can still suggest linking with someone after the fact by saying you were at the same event but unable to introduce yourself. But nothing is better than an interest-ing face-to-face contact first. People will rarely link to a person they have not met, unless they see a commercial reason for doing so, and that is typically not the best way to start a relationship.

This may all be interesting, but where is the money? It’s important to learn about the other person, but eventually you have to say who you are, what your business is and what type of people you are looking to meet. Prepare those few sentences carefully, making them concise and easy to remember for the people you meet. If you work for a large, well-known organisation, don’t be afraid of remarks from people about

any bad experiences they may have had with your company. Often you will be able to help them directly, or you can ask them to email you with the details so you can deal with it the following day. The chances are you will have turned a detractor into a promoter of your company, and that can be worth a few new clients.

All the above should help you improve your personal branding. So off you go to join AmCham, BritCham, ABIE, ABRA, Jump. If you’re already a mem-ber, you might create new business by following these little tricks. Success takes time to materialise, and going out there, meeting and talking to people will enhance your chances greatly. En-gage with people and they will respond by engaging with you. Your personal brand will rise and shine.

Log out and connectSocial media can help with efficient networking, but nothing beats getting out and meeting people

By Dave Deruytter

“People like to do business with someone they really know, and that doesn’t happen overnight”

expat time • autumn • 2014 • 1514 • expat time • autumn • 2014

expat time • Spring • 2013 • 17

ACCESSIBLE ART FAIR

The sumptuous halls of the Cercle de Lorraine are the setting for the 11th edition of the Accessible Art Fair. As the name suggests, this isn’t the usual, insiders-only schmooze-fest. AAF’s main goal is to bring art to the people. And fair organisers are doing it with the help of some friends; a full 50 artists, designers and galleries are on board, putting not just their work but their expertise at the disposal of fair-goers, many of whom are browsing the arts market for the first time. October 16-19 www.accessibleartfair.com

THE NOTEBOOK

Sheffield’s Forced Entertain-ment celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. We shouldn’t expect a conven-tional birthday party from the veteran avant-garde theatre company, however. Director Tim Etchells and his crew are, after all, respon-sible for some of Europe’s most provocative contem-porary productions over the past three decades. No, Etchells’ idea of a good time is staging a new adapta-tion of Ágota Kristóf’s grim wartime novel The Notebook at Kaaitheater. The story follows two brothers who flee into the countryside to escape the violence and social disintegration of 1940s Hungary. But the global con-flict is only the setting for a much more intense personal struggle.October 23-25 www.kaaitheater.be

ARS MUSICA

Brussels’ annual experimen-tal-music festival Ars Musica goes biennial this year. Since 1989 the city-wide event has shone a spotlight on Europe’s avant-garde com-posers. The 2014 edition encompasses 50 concerts in 17 spaces across the capital. Its twin themes are international minimalism and its idiosyncratically Belgian variant, ironically dubbed the Maximalist movement. The former was espoused by the likes of Steve Reich and Terry Riley in the 1960s; the latter was launched in the 1980s by Flemish composers Thierry de Mey and Peter Ver-meersch with contemporary choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. Between the two, you’ll discover new worlds of sound, from ab-stract electronic textures to free jazz improvisation.November 14-30www.arsmusica.be

ECHOLALIA

The work of contemporary Belgian visual artist Ana Torfs has been shown all over the world, making her latest solo exhibition Echolalia a bit of a homecoming. At Wiels the Antwerp-born, Brussels-based Torfs presents six multimedia installations developed over the past two decades and the last five years in particular. Most of them have never been seen in her home country. One – The Parrot & the Night-ingale, a Phantasmagoria – is a world premiere. Torfs reproduces existing texts and images in innovative ways, subverting their original meanings. The exhibition is a dense and profound histori-cal and cultural journey into Europe’s relationship with the rest of the world. A book with 250 images accompa-nies the exhibition.Until December 14www.wiels.org

UPCOMING EVENTS WITH ING

• October 10, Belgium vs Andorra, European Championship qualifier, King Baudouin Stadium, www.belgianfootball.be

• November 16, Belgium vs Wales, European Championship qualifier, King Baudouin Stadium, www.belgianfootball.be

• December 9, 17.30, Expat Estate Planning, ING Orange Room, 60 Cours Saint-Michel, 1040 Brussels , http://tinyurl.com/ing-expat-seminar

What’s on in Brussels

SENSATION & SENSUALITY Peter Paul Rubens put Flanders on the map artistically. Based in the port city of Antwerp, the 17th-century master pushed Baroque painting to its most titillating – and sometimes violent – extremes. So much so that the term ‘Rubenesque’ still conjures that quintessentially Renaissance fetish for feminine fleshiness and languor. The Bozar exhibition Sensation and Sensuality, curated by Nico Van Hout of Antwerp’s Royal Museum of Fine Arts and organised with that institution and the Royal Academy of Arts in London, explores this aspect of Rubens’ work and much, much more. Indeed, this is one of the most ambitious Rubens exhibitions of recent years, bringing together 160 pieces which underline the Baroque painter’s influence on not just his contemporaries but artists up to the present day.

Until January 4, www.bozar.be

Agenda •


The renovation gameExpats and experts give the lowdown on doing up your house in Belgium By Deborah Forsyth

“We can feel the savings we’ve made as a result of the renovation”

Before: Sanaul’s townhouse in

Schuman

Renovating a house has long been considered a sound investment of hard-earned income: not only is a renovated property

more adapted to the owner’s needs and a more attractive environment to live in, its value on the property market is increased too. Belgium offers expats a wealth of property choices, but the rules and regulations surrounding their renovation can be difficult to navigate. We spoke to three expats to get their tips on what to look out for before you embark on your first house makeover.

“We’re both ecologically minded, so we deliberately looked for a place that had character but could also enable us to carry out a low-energy renova-tion,” says British health coach Suzy Sumner, who with her French partner Loik undertook a renovation of a clas-sic townhouse in Brussels’ Anderlecht municipality in 2008. The couple, who didn’t have a car, liked the house’s loca-tion close to Midi station and opposite a metro station, as well as its affordability.

“It fitted our budget,” says Sumner. The couple’s aim was to turn their house into what’s known as an exem-plary building. Such a construction is possible under an eco-building initiative by the Brussels-Capital Region, which offers would-be renovators the oppor-tunity to apply for a grant to transform their property into a model energy-ef-ficient building. In return for the grant, the owner agrees to open their property a couple of days a year to let others see how they achieved their eco-renovation.

“We put our plans together with the help of two architects, one of whom already had experience of eco-reno-vations. We outlined how our design would save on energy and then waited to see if our application was success-ful,” says Sumner. The wait was the only drawback to the grant application. “The scheme does slow down the plan-ning permission process,” says Sumner,

“but rightly so, as it’s public money they’re dealing with. Luck was on their side and the application was accepted and for the next year, their house was a vast building site.

“The whole project took two years to finalise, although this did include living in the house with no heating while we removed false ceilings and did other demolition jobs ourselves.” Render-ing the house airtight was the most significant change the couple made. “We inserted an airtight layer into the house’s interior. Into this passage was

blown cellulose to act as insulation,” explains Sumner. Other eco-changes followed, including installing triple-glazed windows, a ventilation system to keep air moving around the house, a rainwater collection system, solar panels and two flat green roofs.

“We can feel the savings we’ve made as a result of the renovation. While for a comparable building many people will be paying €200 to €250 on heating a month, we pay €60 a month,” says

Sumner. Apart from a few delays along the way, the renovation passed off smoothly overall. “The house feels very nice now. We don’t have any draughts. It’s a really relaxing, comfortable result,” says Sumner.

Irish European Commission official Kate Barry had a far less happy time when she took on the modernisation of her newly bought two-storey villa in Tervuren eight years ago. “Honestly, it’s been a nightmare,” says Barry. “What should have taken three years dragged on for eight. I know things can go wrong when undertaking such renova-tions, but I really did have a lot of bad luck.”

The problems began with her architect, who brought his own builders on board with him. Barry says: “The architect was fine but the builders just wouldn’t listen to him.” With hindsight, says Barry, she would recommend all prospective renovators to plan their renovation with an architect first and then employ their own building contractor to carry out the works.

Her main plan was to raise the level of her house, which involved raising the roof, too. The company involved in laying the pipes on the roof continu-ously delayed work to the point that water seeped down into the house. The builders failed to protect the pipes, so the following winter they burst and the electricity started to cut out. Live wires were left exposed that other workmen


Property •

in the house ignored for weeks. “There was simply no coordination between the workmen,” says Bar-ry. “That contractor eventually pre-sented me with a bill for €14,000 for things that clearly hadn’t been done. I had to get a lawyer to get a building expert in to check,” says Barry. Her lawyer then died, and the replacement left before the process was complete.

The catalogue of horrors continued with her new doors, which took six months to arrive, only not to fit correctly, and with her plumber, who arrived at her house with the wrong model of boiler. “He was understandably very annoyed but then when he was trying to fit it back into the lorry, it toppled over and fell on to my car, leaving a dent.”

The work on Barry’s house is now complete, but she says she is not comfortable there. “With everything that went on I just can’t feel endeared to the house,” she says. “When neighbours remark on my house, saying how lovely it looks, I think they’re mad. I still remember somebody saying when I first started out on this that it might be easier simply to demolish the house and start again. Now I would say they were right.”

Not all renovations take an age to complete. It took just eight months for the newly bought townhouse of British patent attorney Sanaul to be remodelled and modernised.

“The key to a good renovation is picking your builder very carefully”

What’s your experience of renovating property?

Chris Trapman When we first arrived in Belgium, we bought and refurbished a

30-acre courtyard farm in the Condroz region. Then we renovated a 19th-century Mosan villa in Jambes, Namur, as well as refurbishing a commercial and residential property in Namur. It was my experi-ence that you get the best value by undertaking or supervising

the renovation yourself. The most efficient and cost-effective work is carried out – in order of priority – by immigrant workers and artisans,

Flemish workers and companies, local workers and artisans. Brussels-based companies are to be avoided unless you have money to burn! My advice is that you when you’re working out the estimates for property renovation, you should always double the budget and increase the implementation time by a third.

Marcia Kammitsi My experience has been rather lucky. While I was renting a friend’s flat in the

centre of Brussels, I decided I really liked the area. A year later, the place next door was put up for sale. As I was new to the Belgian system and property laws, I had to do a lot of research to understand all the procedures. It was rather stressful at first and it involved a lot of discussions and consultations with people who had been through this process. First, it’s important to choose a good notary who can explain all the steps (in English, if possible). The purchase takes some time, so I had time to think about renovation and search for companies and prices. Once the contract was signed, I started the process of deciding what to renovate, choosing furniture etc. This took a lot of time and reflection, and time out of work to choose furniture and fittings. I was lucky that both the renovation company and interior designer I chose were quite fast and very reliable. So, by the time I had planned to move in, everything was more or less ready.

Achin Batra I bought a piece of land in 2005 and built a house in 2012. I

realised there was a properly defined process for acquisition of property in Belgium which works fine, but getting a house built is not a straightforward task. There were complications with the contractors, who didn’t take responsibility for their tasks. It’s a

contractor’s market; there’s not much competition and the customer has to follow the availability and demands of contractors. Even

well-defined and clear tasks need micro-management. When multiple contractors are involved for work such as plumbing and electricity, always try and establish accountability for the works as they can blame each other for any mistakes and you can suffer from delays. When budgeting, be precise about requirements from day one and always allocate an extra 20-30% of the estimated costs to the final bill, as there will always be surprises.

Lorna Payne We built our own house and project-managed the build

ourselves; if I’m honest, it was mostly my husband doing the project-management. You need plenty of time and patience and very fluent French to coordinate and negotiate with the different contractors. However, the result was definitely worth the hard work and we have a lot more house (and land) for our money than would have been possible in the UK. Building a house is very rewarding but unless you have fluent French and some knowledge as to how to navigate through the bureaucracy, it’s best to use a key-in-the-door formula.

What the notary says

If you’re looking expressly to buy a property to renovate, you’ll need to call on the services of a notary to authen-ticate the purchase. Tim Carnewal of Brussels’ Berquin Notaires explains the role of the notary in property transac-tions.

Every real estate transaction in Belgium has to be authenticated by a Belgian civil law notary. This person is a lawyer who specialises in matters of property law, family law and company law, but is also a public servant, in the sense that the State entrusts him or her with a proportion of its duties. The legal fees of a notary are regulated by Royal Decree, so you will know precisely how much you will pay for the transaction you desire. As of January 1, 2012, services given by Belgian civil law notaries are subject to VAT.Besides their role of citizens’ advisor and editor of deeds, the civil law notary

is also personally responsible for the correct collection of transfer taxes, or registration taxes for the benefit of the State or region. Basic rates vary from region to region – 10% in the Flem-ish Region and 12.5% in Brussels and Wallonia.

Next to that, every region applies differ-ent reductions, which the civil law no-tary is responsible for correctly applying. For example, the Flemish and Brussels regions grant a reduction on registra-tion taxes to people who are buying property for the first time. An important point here is that to benefit, one may not own other real estate. The reduc-tion varies between the two regions and accords a net tax cut of €1,500 in the Flemish Region and €7,500 or €9,375 in some places in the Brussels Region.

www.berquinnotarissen.be

After: Sanaul’s

dining area

The house dates from 1896 and is close to Schuman in Brussels. “We started in September 2013 and were finished in April 2014,” says Sanaul. “To my mind the key to a good renovation is pick-ing your builder very carefully. A good builder is very hard to come by.”Sanaul found his by word of mouth. Before he hired him he went to see a couple of his building sites to see what kind of work he had done already. “I would say, always check the references of your builder,” says Sanaul. “We were very happy with ours in the end. He did a good job.”

Where Sanaul fared less well was with his architect. He took him on a fixed contract for a fixed fee. “And then he just dumped €3,500 on us in sup-plementary charges at the end of his work.” He went to a lawyer for advice and was told that it was easiest just to pay the architect €1,500 and leave it at that rather than risk taking them to court where a verdict in a property owner’s favour is rarely found.

Nevertheless, Sanaul managed to com-pensate for the loss by making savings on additional materials and furnish-ings. “One of the good things about living in the heart of Europe is that you can source materials from around the continent easily. We bought our tiles directly from Spain, for example, and our bathroom furnishings from the Netherlands.” Now that the dust has settled on his building works, Sanaul says he is very happy with his renovated home. You can visit Suzy Sumner’s house on No-vember 2 in green home open door event. Register at www.ecobatisseurs.be

What the architect says

Civil engineer architect Li Mei Tsien of B612 Associates in Brussels has carried out numerous property renovations. There are three common mistakes, she says, which private individuals should try to avoid before embarking on a property renovation.

• Be realistic about the cost. Many prospective renovators underestimate the cost involved. In some cases it can be cheaper to demolish a house and build a new one than it is to renovate it.

• Draw up a proper contract with building contractors. Too often people rely on friends of friends who happen to be contractors to carry out their work for them. These informal arrangements can ruin friendships and disrupt renovations.

• Have an idea of how you want your renovation to be. Approach an architect with as accurate plans as

possible. The architect will then clarify them for you.

Look out for the Energy Performance Certificate which can affect a property’s renovation. The certificate, which must be produced on a house’s sale, indicates the building’s energy performance. To improve performance, architects may have to replace, for example, large single-glazed windows with double- or even triple-glazing. In a period house, cheap versions of these windows can look ugly. Home owners should be prepared to pay more to obtain windows that are of good quality design.

And finally, always check your architect is qualified to carry out the kind of structural work you may need.

http://architecte.b612associates.net www.certibru.com


Property •

Seven pointersabout renovating a property in Belgium

1 Before start-ing a renova-tion, or even before buying the property in question, have

an expert check whether it is worthwhile renovating the property, or whether it would be better to demolish the old building and build a new one from scratch.

2 When buying an old building, a complete analysis of the state of the property –

structure, wiring, plumbing, etc – is worth the money. A good surveyor or property expert will also give an indi-cation of the necessary work to put the house in order, and the cost of that work.

3 Check the building requirements of the com-mune or region where your

property is located. You may not be allowed to transform a townhouse into three apartments as you’d planned, for instance, or there might be rules preventing you from modifying the front of your building if it is listed as a protected monument.

4If you give an architect a full mandate, they will check all the regulations and permits

for you and organise the tender to the general or individual building contrac-tors. They will also make you a detailed budget.

5A complete budget analysis is important beforehand. It is best to ask for expert help,

from an architect or general building contractor. Even with a good budget analysis, the risk of going over budget is high, not least because you may want to make changes to the plans during the works. Be prepared and build in some flexibility.

6 Carefully con-sider whether you want to continue living in your property while the work

is being carried out. Builders start early in the morning, and they make a lot of noise and produce a lot of dust. The renovation may also take longer than planned. All of this will create considerable stress on your family and you, so you may want to consider renting an apartho-tel or staying with friends or family in the meantime.

7 It takes strong visual imagina-tion skills to predict exactly how the reno-vated house or

apartment will look and feel. Be sure you have thoroughly weighed up the renova-tion option against a new construction or buying an existing property.

22 • expat time • autumn • 2014

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MUSÉE PICASSO PARIS

This autumn, after more than a year of much-needed renovation, the Musée Pi-casso Paris re-opens its doors to art-lovers from around the globe. The institution hasn’t yet seen its 30th year but its home, a posh 17th-century mansion called the Hôtel Salé, is considerably older and needed not just maintenance but an entire structural overhaul to suit the building’s purpose: to house and showcase the world’s most extensive collection of works by famed modernist painter Pablo Picasso. You’ll find 5,000 Picasso works here, not just his signature paintings but also sculptures, engravings and illustra-tions. What’s more, it’s all organised into an integral biographical narrative sup-ported by tens of thousands of archival documents. Photo © Musée Picasso Paris/Béa-trice HatalaOpens October 25www.museepicassoparis.fr

BETRAYAL

Mesut Arslan’s contemporary adaptation of the Harold Pinter stage drama Betrayal premiered in Antwerp this year and now makes its way to Leuven. The story remains the same. To describe the characters’ relationship as a love triangle won’t do; it’s rather a dense knot of emotional attachments, professional frustrations, carnal passions and detached nostalgia which unravels in the slack of sybaritic, jet-set leisure. The style, however, is radically different. Arslan has done away with cheesy West End stage sets and thrown his actors and audience together in a contemporary space. In English. October 28 & 29 STUK, Leuvenwww.stuk.be

IN FLANDERS FIELDS

World War One centenary commemorations are in full swing across Flanders. The photographic exhibition The Battle of the Yser and the First Battles of Ypres focuses on one decisive corner of the Western Front, the spot where the German advance was halted and battle lines drawn for the remainder of the conflict. Two local photographers, Maurice and Robert Antony, were there to document the damage done to their home town, Ypres. Only months before the battle, the pair had concluded a thorough pho-tographic catalogue of the city’s historic buildings. By the time they retraced their steps for the second part of this before-and-after series, the landscape was forever changed.Until January 4In Flanders Fields Museum, Ypreswww.inflandersfields.be

ISTANBUL EKSPRES

Istanbul may not be the political capital of modern Turkey but it is unarguably that country’s cultural heart. Two Ghent performance venues join forces to put on the world music festival Is-tanbul Ekspres, which serves as a cultural bridge between Ghent and the city on the Bosphorus. You’ll hear much more than traditional music here. Many Turkish artists have incorporated pop, rock, classical and jazz elements – a truly global fusion. The fes-tival also sees the premiere of a specially commissioned road movie tracing the steps of 20th-century Turkish im-migrants to Belgium.November 7-16 De Centrale and Handelsbeurs, Ghentwww.decentrale.be

UPCOMING EVENTS WITH ING

• October 14-25, Film Fest Gent, www.filmfestival.be• October 23, Ondernemen in Vlaanderen, Business networking fair,

Flanders Expo, Ghent, www.ondernemeninvlaanderen.be

GENERATION: 25 YEARS OF CONTEMPORARY ART IN SCOTLANDWith its iconic medieval castle and buried (some say haunted) vaults, the city of Edinburgh is as historic as they come, but the Scottish capital is also the centre of a thriving modern arts scene. The free exhibition Generation: 25 Years of Contemporary Art in Scotland collects some of the most innovative works created by Scottish artists in the past quarter-century. The comprehensive exhibition occupies the entire main building of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, emphasising the scale of artistic creation in this relatively tiny country. There’s a rich variety on display too, from Douglas Gordon’s film intervention 24 Hour Psycho to Ross Sinclair’s bizarre, room-sized installation Real Life Rocky Mountain (pictured above).

Until January 25 Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburghwww.nationalgalleries.org

Agenda •

What’s on outside Brussels


Caught by the fizz By Jon Eldridge

Helped by changing climates and landscapes, southern England is now home to a growing sparkling wine industry

The landscape is undeniably changing. In the south of England, vast swaths of land are being turned over to the growing of vines. For

sparkling wines in particular, one can confidently look across the Channel for bubbles of true quality.

Melting icebergs are a stock image of news reports on the latest dire warnings of global warming, but never are we shown wonderfully flowering vines in sunny Sussex, Kent and Hampshire – yet both are the result of rising global temperatures. In fact, conditions in the south of England, especially West Sussex with its chalk and sandstone slopes, are now nearly perfect for the production of sparkling wine. Passion-ate enthusiasts are cashing in.

Well, to a degree. Sam Linter, who runs a winery in Bolney, West Sussex (pictured left), acknowledges that UK production is tiny in comparison to the huge volumes produced in Champagne. But the potential for the English market to grow, she says, is enormous.

“When we first started, we felt like pioneers out to prove a point and make it work. We’ve seen massive changes

in the 20 years that I’ve been involved. I’ve seen it grow so fast in quality and in popularity,” she says.

Linter’s parents started a winery when she was five years old; after studying for a diploma in winemaking, she took over the family business. She describes her experiences as a “massive learning curve” and admits to making lots of mistakes in the early days – but in the past 10 years, “things have gone from strength to strength”.

She is not alone among her peers. “Every single one of us is desperately trying to find more land and more peo-ple to buy grapes from. We could sell two, three, four times as much. Our wines go very quickly. We’re looking to double our production as a minimum, and I know that several other wineries are looking to do the same,” she says.

“We could sell two, three, four times as much. Our wines go very quickly”


Lifestyle •

Home-grown bubbles in Belgium and Luxembourg

There’s no shortage of award-winning fizz on this side of the continent, even if local vineyards face similar difficulties to their English counterparts. Production costs are high, unseasonal weather can damage crops and running a small estate requires versatility and commitment. Only the best of the crop can produce sparkling wine according to the traditional method. This involves a second fermentation in the bottle followed by a period of maturation. Taking advantage of the same chalk ridge enjoyed by the nearby Champagne region are the vineyards Entre-Deux-Monts in Flanders’ Heuvelland and Domaine des Agaises in Hainaut, Wallonia. The first blends chardonnay and kerner grapes to produce successful méthode traditionnelles: Zientje, Wiscoutre, Wiscoutre Rosé and Bacquaert Brut. “When blind tasted, you can detect that it’s not Champagne, but it’s good and very original,” says grower Martin Bacquaert. He also makes a good pinot gris. One reason for Entre-Deux-Monts’ quality is its sun-drenched nine-hectare site on the French border. The domain offers a panoramic wine-tasting area for visitors.www.entre-deux-monts.be

The biggest wine producer in Belgium is the 18-hectare Domaine des Agaises es-tate managed by the local Leroy family.

Almost entirely dedicated to méthode tradionnelle sparkling wines under the brand name Ruffus, chardonnay vines dominate, with pinot noir and pinot meunier making up the remainder. The brand leader is Blanc de Blancs, fol-lowed by Brut Rosé, Brut Sauvage, the 2009 Franco Dragone vintage and small quantities of the sweet liqueur ratafia. “We aim for a dry, crisp and mineral wine, suitable for an aperitif or a light starter, with an alcohol content of 12.5%,” says John Leroy. “On an aes-thetic level, we try to produce constant bubbles from the bottom of the glass to the top.”www.ruffus.be

Heading south, the Moselle river provides the natural border between Germany and Luxembourg. The long winegrowing tradition is due to the valley’s mild climate. Vineyards line the sunny slopes on the Luxembourg side, a 39km stretch known as the route du vin. On the southern edge lies the Domaines Vinsmoselle in the village of Wormeldange, the most important wine and sparkling producer in the country. The 800-hectare cooperative set up in 1921 has 300 members, with an extensive range of sparkling wines under the label Poll-Fabaire (pictured above) and appellation Crémant de Luxembourg which has been recognised since 1991. It produces 1.5 million bot-tles a year, including a brut, demi-sec, pinot blanc, pinot noir, chardonnay, Spirit of Schengen and vintage bottles. The brut is a blend of pinot blanc,

auxerrois and riesling. Director Georges Schaaf says the blend gives it a “round, flowing flavour with a pleasant balance. The auxerrois gives fruitiness, the pinot blanc freshness and finesse, and the riesling body and power.” He describes the vintage as having a “surprisingly fine mousse with a creamy, long-lasting flavour. On the nose, there is finesse and aromas of red fruit which easily seduce bubbly lovers.”www.vinsmoselle.lu

Deflating a little the hype over local fizz, Anouck Fransolet, sommelier at two-Michelin starred restaurant l’Eaux-Vive near Namur, thinks Belgian méthodes traditionnelles do not yet offer good value. “Belgian winegrowers have explained to me that their materials are very expensive and have to come from France. As for the taste, Belgium is still lacking in experience. The strength of Champagne is that it has enormous depth, substance and complexity. There is an awareness of the local region, of vines grown in good soil.” SC

“We create a unique, high-quality product that can compare very favourably to Champagne”

While vineyards offer a higher yield for the land than many other crops, and there is a growing trend for farmers to diversify, the south of England is not experiencing some type of gold rush. Investment costs are high and it takes at least three years before you yield a crop. It can be a tricky affair, as the bad summer of 2012 underlined. However, Linter sees winemaking as a lifestyle choice. “It’s an amazing opportunity to make a wonderful product from some-thing that grows in the field,” she says. A few miles farther west at Wiston, Dermot Sugrue has a similar story to tell. He was the winemaker at Nyetim-ber (one of the most recognised makers of English sparkling wine) until 2006, when he left to help Wiston Estate’s owners, Harry and Pip Goring, realise their long-cherished dream of devoting their land to the production of wine. Pip, who is from a wine-producing area of South Africa, recognised the poten-

Martin Bacquaert, Entre-Deux-Monts

“When blind tasted, you can detect that it’s not Champagne, but it’s good and very original.”

tial of the estate’s south-facing chalk slopes when she moved to the country house at Wiston in 1972.

The success of Nyetimber gave the couple the confidence to try their luck, and Sugrue was brought on board to renovate an old fruit-processing plant on the estate. He sourced most of his equipment from France including a coquard, a traditional wooden basket press that he believes produces superior wines. It is, he says, the only one in use in England (where stainless steel pneu-matic tank presses are the norm). The south of England’s long, cool grow-ing season means the grapes have a high acidity – which makes them most suited for the production of sparkling wines. A critical period is when the vines flower in June and July, and this year’s mild weather means English wine-makers are expecting a bumper crop.The marginal increases in average tem-

peratures, decade on decade, are also having a positive impact on the quality and reputation of the region’s wines, Sugrue believes. “There is widespread consensus among international wine commentators, judges and journalists that English sparkling wine is the new frontier in sparkling wine production. We create a unique, high-quality prod-uct that can compare very favourably to Champagne.”

Winning awards, he says, “is a great confirmation that what we’re doing is being recognised for what it’s worth”. He is especially proud that two of three wines that he recently entered into De-canter magazine’s awards were among the three that received gold medals in the English sparkling wine category.

Like Linter, he is optimistic about the future of wine in this area, predicting that production could even quadruple over the next 10 years. And though both wineries sell most of their wine locally, the genie is, as it were, out of the bottle. Bolney exports to China and Japan, while Wiston wines can be found in San Francisco. Is it churlish to imagine that one day you might find an English sparkling wine taking pride of place on a wine list in a Parisian restaurant?

www.bolneywineestate.com www.wistonestate.com



LEWES CASTLE

Lewes is home to a Norman castle that’s more than 1,000 years old. Originally called Bray Castle, it is to be found on the highest point of the town. Needless to say, the views from up there are stunning. Visit the castle and the adjoining Barbican House and learn more about the history of the area, from prehistoric to medieval times.www.sussexpast.co.uk

THE COCK INN

For a great meal and a drink, take a seat at The Cock Inn in Ringmer. This country pub is a family-run business, popular far past the town’s borders. Expect home-cooked food, a bustling atmosphere and Lewes’s own Harvey’s beer on tap.www.cockpub.co.uk

RIDGEVIEW WINES

Ridgeview Wines Estate was founded in 1994 in Ditchling Common in the South Downs, a range of chalk hills stretching over 260 square miles. The vine-yards produce award-wining sparkling wine, praised by connoisseurs and served by top chefs. Visit the vineyards and the cellars, learn more about the grape varieties and taste the renowned bubbles. A tour takes up to two hours and costs £15 per person. Book in advance. See www.englishwine-producers.co.uk for more vineyards in the area.www.ridgeview.co.uk

MONK’S HOUSE

The peace and quiet of the rural area has attracted writers and artists over the years. Virginia and Leonard Woolf lived at Monk’s House in Rodmell from 1919 until 1969. The 17th-century cottage was frequented by members of the Bloomsbury

Group, an influential group of writers, philosophers and artists. Virginia was a keen photographer who took pictures of most visitors, many of which are now on display at the house. The surrounding garden, said to be the reason why the couple bought the cottage, is just stunning.www.nationaltrust.org.uk/monks-house

BATEMAN’S

Though he was born in India, Rudyard Kipling lived in England for most of his life. In 1902, he and his wife settled here at Bateman’s in Burwash. The old house with its oak beams has a mill and 33 acres of land. The writer, most famous for The Jungle Book, loved his Jacobean house and decorated it with rugs and objects from his travels. Learn more about the writer, picnic in the spacious garden or inspect the water mill. It’s great for kids too.www.nationaltrust.org.uk/batemans

LEWES HIGH STREET

Browse the many antiques and books shops on and around Lewes’ High Street. The Fifteenth Century Book-shop, for instance, where you’ll find everything from rare and collectable to recent and readable. Or stock up on local supplies at the farmers market, every first and third Saturday of the month. www.oldenyoungbookshop.co.ukwww.commoncause.co.uk

PELHAM HOUSE

There are lots of B&Bs and hotels in the area. One of the more famous ones is the four-star Pelham House, in a 16th-century town house, with 31 elegant bedrooms. There’s a fine dining restau-rant and a lounge bar for in-formal dining. Pelham House does an excellent afternoon tea and Sunday roast too. www.pelhamhouse.com

Lifestyle •

SUSSEXPicturesque market towns, old castles and endless slopes of vineyards: all the ingredients for a perfect getaway. It’s not in France, though, but in England; in and around Sussex in the south-east of the country, to be precise. We recommend basing yourself in Lewes, from where you can explore everything the region has to offer, including the attractions listed here. The nearest big city to Lewes is Brighton, which is easily accessible from London and the Channel ports.

Our tips on how to make a day – or longer – out of a visit to the season’s cultural highlight

In the neighbourhood


The expensive egg

O h, no. It looks like the new Europa Building is going to take longer to complete than expected. And cost a lot more than the original €240 million bill, according to EU bloggers.

Mind you, I’m not really surprised. I live in Brussels. I know what contractors are like here. They come to your house to fix a leaking tap and tell you it will cost €1,000. But then they discover dry rot in the basement. And some dodgy wiring installed 30 years ago. And as for the plumbing, well, it might survive another winter, but then again, monsieur, if I were you, I’d replace the lot.

And so it goes. You end up with Belgian builders all over the house talking in a dialect that is almost impossible to understand. Or foreign builders who rip up the floorboards and then disappear for the entire summer.

That’s why it doesn’t surprise me that the builders working on Europa are now saying that the new building is going to take a lot longer than anticipated and cost at least €327 million. I could have told them that.

The building they are constructing is an odd egg-shaped structure on Rue de la Loi opposite the Berlaymont building.

It is known as Herman’s Egg, because it was commissioned by Herman Van Rompuy, the EU’s former top man, and the inside looks like, well, a hard-boiled egg.

Sometimes you wonder if anything is ever going to be completed in this city. The Palais de Justice has been propped up by scaffolding for the past 30 years. The scaffolding went up after bits of the 19th-century building started falling into the street. But the scaffolding has now become so rusty and rickety that it will have to be taken down and replaced by new scaffolding because, well, it might survive another winter, but then again, monsieur, if I were you, I’d replace the lot.

I sometimes worry that this entire city is gradually being taken over by construction projects that are going nowhere, like the Palais de Justice scaffolding job. You see gaping holes in the streets, crumbling buildings on the boulevards, and countless yellow and blue crash barriers enclosing construction sites that have been there for as long as anyone can remember.

I would like to be able to say that it will all be finished one day. But I can hear the sound of loud drilling in the basement to remind me that it is always more complicated than you think.

By Derek Blyth

And finally ...

Abdications, nominations, commemorations and football tribulations: Emma Beddington looks back at events making the news over the past 100 days

A former senior trader at Rabobank pleads guilty to interest-rate rigging in the US

The first ever example of a plant-eating dinosaur with feathers and scales is discovered in Russia

Mercer’s Cost of Living Survey names Luanda in Angola as the world’s most expensive city for expats. Brussels was 56th

Jean-Claude Juncker is nominated and later voted in as European Commission president

T he World Cup passed in a haze of caipirinhas and late nights. What can we still remember? A decent performance from Belgium, disaster

for England and Spain and victory for an assured, stylish German team. Oh, and Luis Suarez chomping on Giorgio Chiel-lini’s shoulder. Because it’s not a World Cup without someone who earns the GDP of a small country behaving like a toddler, is it?

G eorge W Bush did it. Benedict Cumberbatch did it five times. Britney Spears did it (but her bucket was tiny). While the inescapable viral charity

phenomenon that dominated social media this summer was undoubtedly good for Motor

Neurone Disease awareness, surviving the onslaught

of celebrities, politicians and distant relatives on Facebook throwing iced water over their heads felt like a challenge in itself.

W as it something we said? After Belgium, the Netherlands and the Vatican, another European sovereign decided to

throw in the towel. Juan Carlos abdicated after 36 years in favour of son Felipe at a time of economic crisis and soaring unemployment, with the monarchy’s popularity damaged by corruption investigations and his poorly timed elephant hunting jaunt. So, erm, good luck with that, Felipe

D ignitaries from 80 countries including France’s President Hollande and Prince William

gathered in Liège to commemorate the outbreak of World War One with speeches, music and a ceremonial balloon release. But with four years of this to come, plus the 100th anniversary of the battle of Waterloo imminent, are we at risk of anniversary fa-tigue? You can trot out this excuse next time you forget a loved one’s birthday; no, no need to thank us.

Comment •

july 2014

june 2014

august 2014

32 • expat time • autumn • 2014 expat time • autumn • 2014 • 3332 • expat time • autumn • 2014

Spotlight •

Designing the good lifeA new exhibition looks at stylish home-grown design in an everyday setting

Design affects our everyday life, yet how many of us look at the objects around us and think about the process and economics behind them? In the exhibition The Power of Object(s): Design Bestsellers in Bel-gium, household items shine. From colourful watering cans (by Davy Groesmans, above) to tableware and fabulously stylish furniture, you can easily imagine these objects in your own home. The premise of the exhibition is to divide the objects selected for each of the 25 designers into the categories icon, bestseller and best money-maker. Designers have been chosen for their reputation and for the number of prod-ucts they’ve launched during their career. The reality for many a designer is that they need to produce at least one hot item to finance their career and creativity. Overall, the 75 objects represent not only the breadth of contemporary design, but the close relationship with manufacturers that is earning Belgium global recognition. Great design is said to be in the detail and this show matches that with its accessible, informative and witty exhibits.

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34 • expat time • autumn • 2014

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Autumn 2014 • n°7 expat time - ING Belgium...Belgium for 14 years and came, as many people do,...

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