Belgian Advent Calendar – Day 14 I’m starting today with a cup of coffee—a scented Irish Coffee blend I picked up just yesterday from Maison Bergamote, a beautiful little shop in Liège, which is coincidentally the birthplace of the author…
Belgian Advent Calendar – Day 13 In Belgium, the tree doesn’t come out immediately after Saint Nicholas passes through on the 6th of December. Tradition asks for a little pause, a breath between celebrations—the tree waits for the weekend that…
Belgian Advent Calendar – Day 12 As I wandered through the Christmas market in Bruges, the air thick with the scent of mulled wine and roasting chestnuts, I heard people laughing everywhere. Couples doubled over at shared jokes, friends cackling…
Belgian Advent Calendar – Day 11 There’s a particular quality to Belgian light in winter—filtered grey, soft-edged, the kind that turns medieval stone into something out of a novel. I experienced this firsthand as our boat glided through Ghent’s canals,…
Belgian Advent Calendar – Day 10 Do you remember when you learned how to look at art? Who was your first guide? And what marked your imagination in front of a painting or a sculpture? Was it a parent pointing…
Belgian Advent Calendar – Day 9 You cannot speak of Belgium without speaking of Art Nouveau. It would be like describing Paris without mentioning Haussmann’s boulevards, or Venice without her canals. Art Nouveau isn’t just an architectural style here—it’s the…
Belgian Advent Calendar – Day 8 There’s a particular tyranny in the modern insistence that solitude is something to be cured. We’re told constantly that connection is wellness, that community is health, that choosing one’s own company over others’ is…
Belgian Advent Calendar – Day 7 There are places in Brussels where the past doesn’t fade—it simply changes costume. The Galeries Saint-Hubert, completed in 1847, was Europe’s first covered shopping arcade, a glass-roofed marvel that preceded Milan’s famous Galleria by…
Belgian Advent Calendar – Day 6 There are countries you love because you were born in their legacy. And then, there are the countries you choose to love with deliberate passion. I should know, since this is precisely my story.…
Belgian Advent Calendar – Day 5 It wouldn’t be December 5th at The Ritual of Reading if we didn’t speak of Saint Nicholas on the eve of his feast, but this year, since we’re traveling to Belgium, St. Nick offers…
