Getting To Know La Doudou

Belgians love festivals and the annual festival to end all festivals just concluded a week long run here in Mons.  The Ducasse de Mons, more commonly known as Le Doudou, it is recognized as a Masterpiece of Oral and Tangible Heritage of Humanity. Its history dates back to the Middle Ages and today mixes its origins with a modern day week long party where thousands of people flood the streets of Mons. There are processionals and ceremonies, concerts of classical, military and contemporary music, food and drinks and the spectacle of Saint George taking on the dragon.

The La Ducasse in Mons found its origins in 1349 when the city found itself suffering from the plague. Officials decided to simultaneously parade the shrine of Waltrude from Mons and the shrine of her husband Vincent Madelgarus from Soignes to a meeting place in the village of Casteau. It is said that a miracle happened with their meeting and the plague was eradicated from the area. In 1380 Saint George entered the festival with a reenactment of his slaying of the dragon.  Today these traditions are carried on annually on Trinity Sunday through the reenactment of the processions and the battle between Saint George, representing good and the dragon, representing evil. There is ceremony and costumes with the maneuvering of the shrine up and down Mons' cobblestone streets. And of course the highlight of the festivities is the reenactment of Saint George's battle with the dragon. Good luck is said to come to those who are able to grab the hairs from the whipping tail of the dragon and hundreds of people always take that challenge. From what I have seen, most of the people making a grab for the tail are young men (probably influenced by a beer or two). There is even a smaller and calmer reenactment of the battle with the dragon is held the following Sunday for where children are the participants.

Friends had told us about the festival months before it actually took place. Living in the center of the city we realized that we would have a front seat view of the festivities and thought the festival would be fun. But then American neighbors who have been living in Mons for some time warned us about the perils of living so close to the center of the action. Streets would be blocked off, the noise would be unbearable at times and we had to be prepared to not be able to get our car in and out of our parking area on several occasions since our garage is not only on the parade route but directly across the street from the church where many of the celebrations take place. So we were both warned and prepared.

The dragon

In the days leading up to the first night of celebrations no parking signs started popping up on every street in our neighborhood. Security personnel at SHAPE issued warnings about how to stay safe during the festivities. City maintenance workers took to the street whitewashing over graffiti and power washing the cobblestones. Restaurants and cafes opened their doors and pulled kegs of beer onto the streets. An early Friday afternoon walk through the Grand Place revealed that the party had already begun with music blaring young people drinking and dancing in the midday sun. We wisely decided to not partake in the evening's festivities but perhaps view the Sunday morning parade. All weekend the streets were filled with the sounds of yelling, music and general revelry. Four in the morning was particularly noisy since this was the hour when the bars briefly closed and drunk patrons were pushed out onto the streets. Shortly after the street sweepers would follow in their wake and then the power washers would come by again. And then it would start all over again.

I've seen pictures of the crowds and festivities and am glad we stayed away from most of the events. Perhaps twenty years ago we would have put ourselves in the middle of the festivities. Being older and wiser now, with a small child, we picked our events carefully. We watched the grand finale fireworks from our bedroom windows. They were indeed one of the most spectacular lighting shows I have seen and I was able to enjoy them, without the crowds, while wearing my pajamas. This past Sunday we joined the albeit smaller crowds on the Grand Place for the children's version of St. George and the Dragon. It was still crowded but from his perch on Glenn's shoulder's, Sidney was able to see most of the spectacle. We watched it live on the large screen that was suspended over the plaza.

La Doudou takes place every year so we have two more opportunities to partake in the festivities if we want. Will we? I'm not sure. At the moment the neighborhood still holds the lingering smell of stale beer and urine and I'm not sure I want to put myself and my family in the center of that. On the other hand, it is a well known and spectacular event whose history runs deep. (And as a history nut, I love that aspect of La Doudou). Perhaps our best bet is befriending someone who owns one of those apartments that is truly on the plaza (maybe we should have rented one of those). Or we could brave the crowds on the ground. We have a year to figure it all out.

The "smaller" crowd that we were a part of

Salut!

I love wine. Italian wines are by far my favorite but that is probably due in large part to the fact that I am most familiar with them. My favorite part of visiting Italy is drinking their local wines. In many restaurants their house wines are far better than the bottled varieties and often cost the same or less than a large bottle of water. But I like wines from other countries as well. There are two American wineries that we are particularly fond of, one on the east coast and the other on the west, and we shipped cases of their wine to Albania and gave them out as gifts (and drank so ourselves too). In the United States Australian wines are quite popular and we always had a bottle or two in the house. Several years ago a friend introduced me to Argentinian wines and during a trip to Spain last year I discovered Spanish Rioja. When German friends came to visit they always brought us great Rieslings and Hungarian friends introduced us to their surprisingly good reds.  Living in Albania local wines were plentiful but not very good. Like the hot Mediterranean sun in which their grapes were grown, their wines were harsh and not at all pleasing. Neighboring Montenegro produces a great red wine while Croatian whites are particularly good and Greece's wines are hit or miss. (But I really think the misses are just my making the wrong selection). And much to my surprise Macedonia and Romania produce very good red wines. Now Belgium isn't known for their wines and the one we tried from neighboring Luxembourg left a lot to be desired. France, however, is world famous for their vineyards yet it is probably the wine region that I am the least familiar with. But all of that is changing........

One of the great things about being here at SHAPE is the variety of cultural events that are brought to base. With twenty eight member countries as well as a handful of others that are closely associated with NATO, if seems as though there is always a country specific cultural event being held on base. And last week's event was a wine festival sponsored by France. For anyone who hasn't had the opportunity to attend a wine festival go because they are great opportunities to try a variety of wines that you might not otherwise have the chance to experience. For the cost of two euros (for the tasting glass) we could sample wines from twelve wineries all across France. We moved from booth to booth talking to the representatives of each winery and sampling what they had to offer. Now many of the pours were quite generous so it wouldn't be soberly possible to taste all of the wines that were available. Rather I selected several vendors and focused on two or three of the wines they had to offer. I tried both reds and whites. Some were good while others were unremarkable or not to my liking at all. Now I am by no means an expert on wine but even to my uneducated palate I can taste the difference in wines from different regions (and countries). There really is a difference.

Overall the French wines tasted different in my mouth. It is probably a cliche but the ones I sampled tasted more refined and mellow than the bold Italian reds I adore. Because I tend to lean towards reds anyway I decided to focus on the whites. The first one I tried simply wasn't good; it was so dry it left a metallic taste in my mouth. The next one was a Muscat which was so sweet that it made my teeth hurt. I finally struck gold with the Francois Schmitt winery from the Alsace region. I tried two of their whites, a Gewurztraminer and a Riesling and really enjoyed them both. Their Pinot Noir was good too. So much so that I walked away with a bottle of each.

I can't say that at the moment I love French wines as much as those from other countries but I have now found a few that I like. And I want to find more so if anybody out there has any recommendations, please send them my way. In the meantime I'm going to enjoy the wines I bought and look forward to attending the next wine festival.