Marching on!

Belgian Pageantry is, it seems, a big thing. I was lucky to bump into a festival in full swing in Thuin. It appears to be an evolution of a religious parade where a statue or relic of the local saint is taken around the village once a year as a kind of blessing/protection. Somehow this has got wrapped up with military costumes from the period around Napoleon for armies coming from all over the place (belgium is a bit of a long-term battle ground). The locals were super keen to impress about how great this is. There were many different marching bands each of which have various uniforms and divisions for drums, guns, women, kids etc.
Binche is famous for its festival with straw stuffed gilles (men) which lob oranges as a blessing. It was not their fete but a few of them were out and about (and I was given but not lobbed an orange ).
I also visited the 2002 UNESCO barge lift (unfortunately closed on Mondays but impressively huge none the less) and the found the older Napoleonic version near by. Finally stopped in the city of Mons.Read more