Liège, a cradle of the arts
Our visit to Liège/Luik was a great success.
In the morning we had a guided tour of the opera house – the Opéra Royal de Wallonie. Our guide (who only spoke French, to the disappointment of some of us, who couldn’t always keep up) was determined to tell us everything in great detail. She admittedly had a huge group – whereas most places stipulate a maximum of 15 participants, she had to cope with twice that number and as some parts of the building could only be accessed with her keycard, it was a constant worry that someone might get left behind. However she was a real enthusiast and bombarded us with information about the building and the significant persons involved in the construction and performances over the 200 years since it was completed.
After a lunch of the local speciality, Boulettes de Liège (meatballs!) in a sauce containing another speciality, Liège syrup of pears, we proceeded to La Boverie art gallery.
This attractive collection of items from the 17th century to today, is housed in a beautiful building, built in 1905, in a park on the edge of the city. This time we had 2 guides – a French-speaking one and a girl who spoke beautiful English. The latter was very knowledgeable and gave us a whistle-stop tour of the whole exhibition. It is a very impressive collection, and of a size which makes it possible to spend an afternoon and see virtually everything.
Many thanks to André for organising a most enjoyable day.
As we were staying another night in Liège, we were inspired by our morning activity to see if there were any tickets available for that evening’s performance at the Opera – and ended up seeing a wonderful performance of the first night of William Tell from 2 of the best seats in the house!
Margaret du Maine
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