Floralia Brussels

 

Floralia Brussels (Click link, enlace, lien)

Le château de Grand-Bigard abrite Floralia du début avril à début mai

The spring flower exhibition in the park and the greenhouses of the castle of Grand Bigard (Groot-Bijgaarden) offers an unforgettable flower experience. The park of 14 hectares incorporates nearly all spring bulb varieties. For the new flowering time, the gardeners of the castle have planted by hand more than one million bulbs.  Special attention goes to the tulips, with almost 400 varieties, hyacinths and daffodils are also well represented.

Sur les 14 hectares du parc du château de Grand-Bigard vous pourrez découvrir presque toutes les variétés de fleurs de printemps à bulbes. Sous la direction de spécialistes, professionnels des plantes à bulbes, ce sont plus d'1 million d'oignons qui ont été plantés à la main par l'équipe de jardiniers du château. Les nombreux amoureux de la nature auront l'occasion de découvrir durant ces 4 semaines 400 variétés de tulipes parmi lesquelles de nouvelles créations. Les jacinthes, narcisses et d’autres variétés de printemps ont également  leur place dans le parc. 

Floralia Brussels (Click link, enlace, lien)

Visit The Netherlands 4/4

Delft (Click link, enlace, lien)

A visit on a snowy and grey day.

Delft is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. Delft is also known to be the native town of the painter Jan Vermeer.

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Delft (Click link, enlace, lien)

Visit to The Netherlands 3/4

 

Kinderdijk (Click link, enlace, lien)

A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997.

Kinderdijk is a village in the municipality of Molenlanden, in the province of South Holland, Netherlands.

Kinderdijk is situated in the Alblasserwaard polder at the confluence of the Lek and Noord rivers. To drain the polder, a system of 19 windmills was built around 1740. This group of mills is the largest concentration of old windmills in the Netherlands. The windmills of Kinderdijk are one of the best-known Dutch tourist sites. 

2022-03-31 Kinderdijk (Click link, enlace, lien)

Visit The Netherlands 2/4

 

Keukenhof (Click link, enlace, lien)

Keukenhof the world's largest Floral Garden.

Keukenhof means Kitchen Garden, also known as the Garden of Europe, is one of the world's largest flower gardens, situated in the municipality of Lisse, in the Netherlands.

 In the 15th-century it was the castle's kitchen garden (in Dutch: keukentuin), providing game, fruit and vegetables. Keukenhof, the park, as it is now known today, was established in 1949 by a consortium of bulb growers and flower exporters to showcase their products and support the export industry. The garden opened to the public in 1950. Each autumn, 40 gardeners plant the 7 million bulbs, donated to the park by over 100 growers. Planting starts early October and is usually completed by 5 December, around Sinterklaas. The flowerbeds are synchronised to the different bulb flowerings to ensure blooms throughout the duration of park's 8-week opening. To ensure continuous bloom, three bulbs are planted in each location. The shallowest bulb will bloom first for three weeks, followed by the subsequent layers. This technique is known as the "lasagne". 

Keukenhof (Click link, enlace, lien)

Visiting The Netherlands 1/4

Zaanse Schans (Click link, enlace, lien)

a picturesque village near Amsterdam famous for its iconic windmills.

It is best known for its collection of well-preserved historic windmills and houses.

Names of the mills from left to right: Het Jonge Schaap ("The Young Sheep"), De Zoeker ("The Seeker"), De Kat ("The Cat"), De Gekroonde Poelenburg ("The Crowned Poelenburg") and De Huisman ("The Houseman").

Zaanse Schans (link, enlace, lien)

Visit C... & Basilica of Saint-Remi

 

Notre Dame de Reims & Basilica of Saint-Remi (Click link, enlace, lien)

Notre Dame de Reims.

Notre-Dame de Reims, meaning "Our Lady of Reims", sometimes known in English as Reims Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic cathedral in the French city of the same name. The cathedral was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and was the traditional location for the coronation of the kings of France.

 The cathedral church is thought to have been founded by the bishop Nicasius in the early 5th century. Clovis was baptized a Christian here by Saint Remigius, the bishop of Reims, about a century later. He was the first Frankish king to receive this sacrament. Construction of the present Reims Cathedral began in the 13th century and concluded in the 15th century. A prominent example of High Gothic architecture, it was built to replace an earlier church destroyed by fire in 1210. Although little damaged during the French Revolution, the present cathedral saw extensive restoration in the 19th century. It was severely damaged during World War I and the church was again restored in the 20th century.. 

Basilica of Saint-Remi (UNESCO World Heritage Site).

The Basilica of Saint-Remi (French: Basilique Saint-Remi) is a medieval abbey church in Reims, France. It was founded in the 11th century "over the chapel of St. Christophe where St. Remi was buried.

The Basilica of Saint-Remi dates from the 11th, 12th, 13th and 15th centuries. The eleventh-century nave and transepts, in the Romanesque style, are the oldest; the façade of the south transept is the most recent. Most of the construction of the church finished in the 11th century, with additions made later. The nave and transepts, Gothic in style, date mainly from the earliest, the façade of the south transept from the latest of those periods, the choir and apse chapels from the 12th and 13th centuries.[4]

Basilica of Saint-Remi (Click link, enlace, lien)

Visite du Château de Sedan on a cold and grey day

Château de Sedan (link, enlace, lien).

The Château de Sedan is a castle situated in Sedan, France, on a headland on the border of the river Meuse, in the Ardennes département of France. Solid and imposing, Sedan castle dominates the town with its impressive stature. It took one and a half centuries, starting in 1424 and with successive additions, to build this monument, the largest feudal fortress in Europe. In 1424, in the early 15th century,  Evrard d'Arenberg, Count of Marck, began building a very powerful castle on a rocky outcrop around the remains of the church of St. Martin. This castle, consisting of a large number of towers and buildings built over several centuries, was part of the Principality of Sedan where several La Marck princes succeeded each other over half a century.

Château de Sedan (link, enlace, lien)