I’ve mentioned before that since arriving in Belgium, we routinely stumble upon parties and parades here! Well, this past St. Patrick’s Day was no exception.

We looked for any festivities in the area, but we couldn’t find anything so we decided we wanted to explore a city that we hadn’t been to yet, Tournai. Tournai is the oldest city in Belgium and really doesn’t get much attention from foreigners or travelers which is a shame. Tournai is considered to be one of the most important cultural sites in Belgium. The mixed Romanesque- and Gothic-style cathedral of Notre Dame de Tournai and the belfry, the oldest in Belgium, have been designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

As soon as we leave the car, we start hearing music playing and at this point we are about 1/8 of a mile away from the city center. As we get closer, we can see people are dressed in costumes and it’s ironic that the first group of people are dressed up as Smurfs, considering the smurfs are a Belgium creation. And yes, that is beer in their hands.

At this point we still have no idea what is going on, so we just decide to make our way to the Grand Place which is the city center. There is confetti all over the street and people adorned in various costumes. The food and beer is plentiful! As we’re walking, we come across the gorgeous cathedral. This building is just overwhelming in size and presence.

The streets are getting more and more packed as we wind through the cobblestoned streets to the Grand Place.

We finally make it to the square and it is just one huge party. People of all ages are there and we are in the minority because we don’t have costumes on!

The boys had a blast and so did we. It was quite an unexpected surprise. We didn’t even get to really explore the town or the sights as we were too busy having fun!

There was a huge parade which was great to watch.

And here is another view of the town:

Tournai is only about 20 minutes away so we will go back one of these weekends.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 8th, 2007 at 7:59 am and is filed under Travel, Family life, Belgium. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.