Native Behavior
Bruxellois are never happier than when they're setting eating irons to work on one of their country's proud regional cuisine specialties, and easing its assimilation with a carefully crafted artisanal Belgian beer, or three. If this can be done over an extended lunch, on the boss's time, and at the boss's expense, so much the better. You can join them in spirit, if not on expenses, by making lunch an important part of the day's proceedings.
Then, you need to get to complaining about the overpaid, under-worked, arrogant, dimwitted, probably corrupt, expense-account-toting, comfortably pensioned "eurocrats" who run the bureaucracy -- and boy, is that some bureaucracy -- of the gravy train that goes by the name of the European Union and is ensconced like a bloated alien body in their midst. See, it's easy.
Who do you kiss and how often? Some rules of thumb: After a first formal handshake, people invariably kiss on meeting again, though the kiss is more like a peck on the cheek, or on each cheek; women kiss other women; men don't kiss other men until they know them better, when it's fine; and men should kiss all the women (and not return to the start of the line to kiss the prettiest ones again).
A New Art
A new design style appeared towards the end of the 19th century and flourished for a few decades. It was called Art Nouveau in the United States and Britain. Art Nouveau's prime materials were glass and iron, which were worked with decorative curved lines and floral and geometric motifs. Belgium produced one of its greatest exponents in Victor Horta (1861-1947); his work can be seen in Brussels where the Tassel House (1893) and the Hôtel Solvay (1895) are forerunners of the ambitious Maison du Peuple (1896-99), with its concave, curved facades and location within an irregularly shaped square. His most famous building was the Innovation department store (1901), which was destroyed by fire.
Fans of the city's superb legacy of Art Nouveau architecture should check out the works of Gustave Strauven (1878-1919), the Brussels-born student of master Victor Horta. Strauven's signature is his use of blue and yellow bricks. He built the Maison St-Cyr on Square Ambiorix, and around 100 private homes in Brussels and Tournai. A private enthusiast is restoring his home from 1902 at rue Luther 28.
