Armistice

This plaque is just off the Grand Place in Mons. It reads:

Mons was recaptured by the Canadian Corps on 11th November 1918: After fifty months of German occupation, freedom was restored to the city: Here was fired the last shot of the Great War.

One hundred years ago this morning.

Inside the belfry

The clockworks and the bells. 

In The Nine Tailors, one of Dorothy L. Sayers's Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, a man is murdered by being locked up in a church tower while the bells are being rung -- the noise kills him.

I was glad these bells were silent.

Les toits de Mons

Views from the belfry in Mons. The tower, a UNESCO World Heritage site, was built in the 17th century and is only 87 meters tall, but  when these are the views you don't have to be that high up.

More Grand Place

That's the City Hall on the left. The jumbled wood canopy on the right is an art installation.

Another Grand Place

This is in Mons, a charming town southwest of Brussels where I spent the night with a friend before going to Ghent.

Urban poetry

And we're back in Belgium.

This particular restaurant was in Mons, but I saw them in Ghent as well. Alas, I did not get a chance to sample their offerings, but the name made me laugh out loud. It's the perfect example of globalization: a restaurant chain with an Irish-sounding name selling what it claims is the original French version of a Mexican dish.

Update: And, I neglected to add, with a slogan Original French Tacos that's in English.