Whatagain back at Charleroi

[whatagain]

I dropped the girls at the airport and decided to revisit Charleroi line a tourist.
The kind who skips museums, for a start.

I must say it was a trip full of nostalgia, with my feet turning in old familiar streets, or rediscovering things.
Plus some changes. Not a lot, but huge.

[whatagain]

I said a bit of nostalgia. 
There was a huge traffic jam just before town, and leaving the highway i found myself, with onecor two turns in front of my old gym complex. 
Typical of the region. 

The pics are still the same ! My teacher went to our colony in 58... strangely, no more trips after 60. 

Exactly as 40 years ago. Nothing changed. Maybe the lighting. 

Very close, this building wzs a sximming pool. Too expensive to repair i guess, and too... art nouveau inside ? To demolish. 

Now, looking at the street from the building, it will not attract posh peoplecif repaired... 

The exhibition hall.
The guy who thought of writing 'kisses my hobey' should be executed. It us an ugly building with a stupid logo. 

[whatagain]

More nostalgia. My home for my 15 first years.
Villa Eglantine builtvend of XIX, like a lot in Charleroi.

In front if ghe house, some typiczl 'corons'. Hhese were identical houses, in rows, with in front the door, one room, then a first floor ans attic. Made for miners, it was a spectacular social progress at the time.

Same, but i would suppose the one in need of repair belinged to a boss. 

The house of our family doctor. One of the best looking houses back then. 

Renovating some houses from an old coron. 
I didn't take pics of the streets, but they were the same as 40 years ago, potholes included. 

My old park. There were more trees then, but i have never seen flowers. 

My maternal school. I think i am standing in my old classroom. 

The bridge here is above la Sambre. We are leaving Marcinelle and enter Charleroi proper. 
The new buildings were cobsideted too new when built in 1970's. A school. I find them quite ok. 

The boulevard Tirou. It covers an arm from La Sambre. Main artery of Charleroi. I parked for 30 min but stayed 2 hours. 

[whatagain]

The oldest gallery. Bultot was already an old man when i came there. 

The old commercial street, the rue de la Montagne, connecting downtown to uptown. 
Now dead. Most shops are closed, the ones open are mainly junk.

Rue de Dampremy. Most shops survive here, mainly clothes. I had my fave bar there when at school. 

Quick has lost a lot of selling points recently, but that one, among the firsts in Belgium, still survives.
I remember its opening, a revolution at the time. 

The pkace de la ville basse as I remember it, less the cars, that used to be parked everywhere. 
I bought a lot of shoes at Lachapelle. Nenette, a friend of the family was working there. 

The other side, a big mall. 
The shops there killed all the old ones. 
It us huge, real huge for Europe.

of course we are in Charleroi, capital city of the cartoons.
You may have spotted the Smurf on the facade of the mall, here is Gastin Lagaffe.
Being Charleroi, the 2 headlamps have already been stolen.
Theft and insecurity is rampant.   

[whatagain]

Inside the mall.

Outside at night. See the Smurf now ? 

It connects but does not include an old passage, the only thing i find beautiful in Charleroi. 

You see the mall thriving, and here everything shut down... 

The okd tower got a lifting. 

The old passage gets repaired too. 

The mall, from opposite the place de la ville basse, we are cloae to the railway station. 

[whatagain]

The whole city is undergoing major works since at least a decade. Maybe it will be done in another one. We are just 50 m from the railway station. The restaurant in the middle was the ine where we went nearly on a weekly basis for ages. 

The Ibis is actually the leftmost building of orevious pic. 
It overlooks La Sambre. A good place for Kerouac to sleep  

On the other side, the station. I don't remember seeing it Not in repair, rebuilding. 
It us not an ugly ine i would dare say. 

A walloon worker. At the time he had a hamner, now one might think he tries to grab his beer, a Jupiler... 

Going up towards pkace de la ville haute. Remember i said ghe shops all died there... it was about 5 pm. 

Really empty. 

La pkace de la ville haute, with the city hall. In front is one of the ugliest churches i have ever seen, took no pic. 
That is all folks. 
To be honest there was another nice park, my old bar closer to school but light was too bad for my Samsung. 

[kerouac2]

Trips down someone else's memory lane are by far the most satisfying for me because it makes places that would be meaningless come to life. When we just see monuments, they have no emotional impact.

Charleroi has not changed since my last trip there a few years ago, and yes I have stayed in that Ibis. I parked in the street directly in front, which did not seem like the safest place in the world but it didn't keep me awake at night. The car was still there in the morning. Just a Fiat 500 or something like that so of little interest to thieves.  It looks like parking is forbidden now.

I'm wondering what on earth they're doing with the esplanade in front of the train station.  In my older report, it had been totally renovated and looked quite nice.

[kerouac2]

I'm not sure why Charleroi fascinates me other than being one of the ugiest cities I have ever seen. I just spent a happy hour perusing this website: www.charleroi-decouverte.be/pages/

[bjd]

I have never been there but Charleroi does seem rather a depressing place -- maybe because of the empty streets? Maybe the gray skies? I like Whatagain's old house though.

[whatagain]

Charleroi is a young city by european standards.
Founded around 1660 by the Spaniards, from scratch, mostly as a fortress (Vauban scheme) to control the area, since they had lost some ground around.
Upon knowing this, the French come and capture it, reinforce it. Then the Dutch come, the Spaniards, even the Germans.
Anyway it remains small until... and start to attract people around our independance (1830), when the coal present in abundance allow the development of glass and metallurgy.
There were about 50 000 people in around 1860 and 200 000 at the turn of the century.
Charleroi was then capital city of the black land (coal) and contributes greatly to Belgium's wealth.
Coal collapsed first a little bit after WW2 (Catastrophy of le Bois du Cazier is in 1960 i would say) then steel (no more hot production, some alloys made by electricity remain) and now glass (closure of St Gobain in 2014, reduction of the prod of AGC recently).
Net result : >20 pc unemployment in 2010 if not more, and everybody with a bit of a brain, a little money leaves the area.
Compensated by immigration, coming because of low cost of housing etc.
Charleroi was black and depressing when rich, and remains depressing now...
The inhabitants were super nice, and still have a reputation for being welcoming and friendly.
What else to say ?
Glad that i left.

[kerouac2]

All of the mining cities in the region seem to have rich and tragic histories. At least Belgium and France had the sense to close their last mines 30 years ago.

They are not at all forgotten, though -- as evidenced by the new mini series Germinal on television now.

[mickthecactus]

Nov 10, 2021 6:00:05 GMT kerouac2 said:

All of the mining cities in the region seem to have rich and tragic histories. At least Belgium and France had the sense to close their last mines 30 years ago.

They are not at all forgotten, though -- as evidenced by the new mini series Germinal on television now.

Germinal is such a great book.

[tod2]

Thanks for that photo-essay and chat about the different places and buildings. It would not appeal to me as a tourist destination. but it is good to see the cities in Europe are not always picture perfect places. The photo of the two judo guys reminded me that my brother-in-law was once the South African judo champion.