The Hautrage "Flyer"

Our local weekly newspaper in Columbia, for you non-Howard County residents, is the Columbia Flyer. Since we moved to Hautrage we've been receiving the passe-partout, which covers our area of southern Belgium and northern France. It seems to be a combination of ads and local news stories.

In this week's edition, which I started reading over breakfast - because we don't get a real newspaper anymore - the first story I read was about Al Gore buying 107 hectares (about 264 acres) of forest called the Bois d'Angre to save it from development. Now, you might ask how Al Gore knew about this little parcel of land in remotest Belgium threatened by malicious exploitation. Well, the article foresaw your question and provided an answer. It admits that this is only rumor ("badly informed sources") but supposedly Al Gore has a cousin working at SHAPE who informed him about it. There was a good play on words in the article for us Francophiles, but I won't bore you with it here. In any case, Al is going to leave the land as is because, as the article says, he likes to remind us that "Trees cut down to be burned contribute to global warming."

The next article I found interesting was about the motocycle club from Quievrain called "Les Esquimaux" (The Eskimos) who have been engaging in "intelligent cycling" for 7 years. Seems this group of mature gentlemen get together on Sundays and during the summer to travel to "cultural destinations" - such as Chimay, Maredsous, and Orval. Anyone who has been to Belgium (and even some who haven't) will appreciate the fine culture these gentlemen are partaking of.

That's just a sample of what awaits me when I get back to the passe-partout...

A little bit about where we live:

Hautrage is in the commune of St. Ghislain, which is in the province of Hainault. That means we have to buy trash bags and recycling bags valid for St. Ghislain, because the sale of the bags contributes to the cost of trash pickup (a hidden tax).

Hautrage is a little bigger than we initially thought but seems to consist mainly of homes, many of which are really pretty. There are, as far as we can tell - and we've walked most of the village - exactly two stores: the patisserie and a toy/newspaper and magazine store (librairie). The church does not appear to offer Sunday Mass, since there is no schedule posted. It seems that in these small villages the Mass rotates, so we might get it here only once a month or so. But since there is no schedule posted, I'll never know... Oh, and then there's the hair dresser and the pharmacy that operate out of the proprietors' homes.

There is a Maison communale across the Grand' Place from the bakery but we haven't figured out the secret to being allowed in. It seems to be mostly older folks gathering for meetings or poker - we can't tell which.

Unfortunately we have yet to find a bar or cafe in Hautrage, Chez Coco apparently being closed for good. We find it hard to believe that all these Hautrageois are drinking at home, so we'll continue to search diligently for that hidden bar.