FeliXart museum in Drogenbos & rock garden ‘Bloemendal’ in Huizingen.
by Nelly Cock-De Clercq
Some outings can be unexpectedly outstanding. As I visited the Felix De Boeck museum almost 30 years ago, I expected it to be almost unchanged. But the current team opened it with a tour of the charming farmhouse where the painter lived, workshops for young and old, even two oxes born on the estate (which were not there yet because it was too humid) and temporary exhibits. The current one is a real eye-opener: Ukrainian avant-garde ! Who has ever heard of Ukrainian avant-garde, or saw it ? In the early twentieth century, it was all covered up by the Soviet regime … Before it became a dream of a new world, destroy the old and let’s find something new . A cultural explosion, longing for a different society … Some of the paintings are so beautiful … An excellent guide gave us a lot of explanation and as usual I fhad the feeling “I would love to come back“ to explore some more .
Drogenbos – house Felix De Boeck
Then a delicious lunch in “Kzeg a Modà“ – what’s in a name … (local dialect for ‘I just tell you this’) And on to the Alpine garden of Huizingen with a very sympatico guide who told us a lot about the design of the garden, intended to attract visitors of the 1958 World Expo further away in Belgium . The rock garden has just been restored and will be even more beautiful later in the spring. A great day all together !
Huizingen – Bloemendal rock garden
Comments
Another Hit! Well done André, for organizing such a fascinating (& rather unexpected) day out at Drogenbos & Huizingen on Friday. We confess we are not Abstract/Avant-Garde art fans – but our enthusiastic guide brought the whole thing to life & the farmhouse was a delight. Ditto the Bloemendal rock garden! Much more our subject & we learned a lot from Frans. Thank you again.
Ginny & Jon Caldwell
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I was very sad not to be able to do the morning part of the visit last Friday but intend to return and do the whole day’s event in the summer with some friends who were unable to come on Friday. There was a lot of positive feedback about the museum visit among participants. The lunch was excellent value for money and the meal was tasty, nicely served. The restaurant will certainly be good to know when visiting the area in future. The tour of the rock garden was most interesting and Frans was an excellent, knowledgeable and fascinating guide. I really enjoyed my afternoon. Thank you, André.
