MANNEKEN PIS (LITTLE PEEING BOY) SYMBOL OF BRUSSELS

There are several stories about the statue of  Manneken Pis (Peeing little man). I only know this story :

Manneken Pis is actually the young Duke Godfrey III of Leuven. When he was two years old, his father died and two noblemen from the house of Berthout declared war. Godfrey’s guardians asked the Count of Flanders for help. The Count agreed, and placed little Godfrey in a basket that hung from an oak tree as a symbol of encouragement for the troops. And encourage them he did – every now and then the little Godfrey stood up and peed on the heads of the enemies. Godfrey’s allies won the battle and celebrated in Brussels, where they planted the oak tree. Legend states that this is why the street next to Manneken Pis is named Rue du Chêne, meaning ‘oak street.’ And, of course, next to the oak, they erected a statue of the young peeing lord. 

It’s a tradition in Brussels to dress Manneken Pis at special occasions. His wardrobe, which contains more than 1000 costumes including the expensive outfit gifted by Louis XV of France, is kept at the Maison du Roi. 

The first clothes Manneken Pis ever received were gifted by Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria, who was the governor of the Austrian Netherlands. As well as historical clothing, the wardrobe also contains modern costumes, such as a Mickey Mouse, Elvis, Michael Jackson and many more.

Between 1919 and 1940, Manneken-Pis received one new outfit each year. After World War II, Manneken Pis' wardrobe grew on average by five to fifteen outfits per year. And by the 1980s, the number of costumes rose to twenty-five. Today, around 20 to 30 new outfits are added on an annual basis. Here are the some of his costumes.

 

 

The whole year long tourists from all over the world look for Manneken Pis ! Often they just stand in front of him but don't see him. It happened often to me that I pointed out that he stands just behind them in the corner ! And always hear the same comment : Wow ! is he small, it's like a doll, I imagined a little boy ! But his pee is "normal". Sometimes on a certain occasion he even pees beer !

AWWW MONDAY - WEEKEND JULY 15

 

Where is the mistake ? 

linking to AWWW MONDAYS

 

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WEEKEND

On Saturday when I woke up I jumped out of the bed when I saw the time, I had forgotten to set the alarm on my phone and Maria should come in half an hour. I just felt lousy, the air was bad and the slightest effort, such as putting on my home dress, left me breathless. I was furious because last Saturday I felt so good. In short, Maria worked and I hang on the sofa.

Isabelle called me from France to ask me how to open the fuel flap as she absolutely had to fill up, she had rented the same car  as I have. It's easy to find, when you know, so it took her a while to find the handle. I couldn't understand why she suddenly had the same car as me. I thought she had already arrived in Brussels! Afterwards we both had to laugh when she told me that she still was in France at the airport.

Meanwhile it started to rain while the sun was shining and a very strong wind suddenly blew away my parasol ! I took this for a sign not to go out and do any shopping !  I had bookmarked a kind of photo shop program and started with one picture. That took me the whole afternoon, I nearly missed supper time, it was Rosie who reminded me that it was time to eat something. It was already late.

This was so much fun, that I spent the whole afternoon playing around with photos !

Sunday it was still very windy and probably during night the wind had played with my flower pots. Fortunately nothing had fallen down on the terrace of the first floor. 

After lunch I went to one food shops which is open on Sundays to buy some fruits, with this heat and unhealthy weather, I eat all kind of fruits, whatever I can find, because sometimes some are missing.

As in my car I felt well, I drove to our former house, because Isabelle had told me that they had closed one of the enormous windows and had made two little windows instead. Unfortunately I couldn't see the transformation, because there were so many bushes and a high hedge. 

So I continued and ended up at the Waterloo Lion, to see if there were a lot of tourists and there were ! As apparently each Sunday a few Soldiers, 3 horses and one canon, played the battle, I had seen this so often since the renovation of the battle field, that I only took one picture. From the battles before 2015 I have a lot of pictures, there was a camp for the English, Scottish, Dutch and German soldiers. What they do now is really ridiculous.  The battle field now

 Finally I thought why do I go here, each time it makes me angry. Maybe because I had been volunteer to help the English, German and Italian tourist, when Waterloo celebrated the 200th anniversary of the battle and all tourist complained about the organization !

I returned home and wrote this post ! I just heard in the News that Jane Birkin (singer and actor) has died at the age of 76, I thought she was the same age than me. She was very famous in France.