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MONT-SAINT-AUBER, just across the border in Belgium, became known
as the Jardin des Poetes because of Tournai-born Geo Libbrechtit (1891-1976) and others who found inspiration
in the local countryside. Quotations are carved in the pavement leading
down towards the woods. One translates along the lines of; 'When I walk
in the fields, I know something of poetry.'
Maurice Carême (1899-1978) is one of the poets celebrated here but in fact he never came to write at Mont-Saint-Auber, although he attended several reunions here. He wrote in and around Brussels and at Orval, where he often spent the summer. For more about Carême, see the link below. It is so hot today that, after a short walk, we sit at a table on the terrace of Le Panoramique cafe and I sketch the view towards the old town of Tournai.
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Richard Bell, |
The next evening, Saturday, at about 9 p.m., a tornado sweeps through
the northern quarter of the town, uprooting trees, damaging 300 hundred
houses, lifting the roofs off many of them, but injuring only five people.
It misses historic town centre and cathedral of Notre Dame.
But back to Friday; the Spindle berries are ripe here, ahead
of ours at home.
Back home with our hosts in Villeneuve d'Ascq, Daphne, the little girl
from next door, presents Myriam with a bouquet made up of grasses and
wheat picked in seven different fields around the house. It is a charm
that is reputed to bring good luck.