Life: Idiotropic

On Sunday, May 7th, my mom and I had the luxury of spending a day out without children. I'd heard that the Sunday market in Liege, Belgium was wonderful, so we went. It was only an hour away from us and an easy drive. Liege is the third largest city in Belgium and is predominantly French in language use and attitude. Parking was remarkably easy though the streets by the river were lined with cars on either side, we were able to find a spot in a little free lot right near the bridge. The city was a mix of old and new like so many here, but the bridge was the most impressive with huge statues on all sides - four of them total and all different.


The market is held on Sundays right by the river and is spans for quite a ways. You can buy anything that you want at this market from the high class to the low class. We bought dried kiwi and strawberries from a vender selling delicious dried fruits and nuts. The produce venders all had it perfectly displayed and it all looked like it had jumped out of a cooking magazine, shiny vegetables in full color. We got olives and pickled garlic from a vender that had over 20 different large bowls of olives with different spice combinations. They were so delicious, I'd almost go back just for those. The brie was amazing and there was just about any cheese you could want. We got a nice hunk of brie for only 1E! Fish markets, meat venders... there was just so much. We passed several places specializing in Italian imports. Dried fish hung from the top of the tent and piles of a dried flat fish sat in front. They were all salted for soup stocks. Pasta the size of taper candles, bakery carts selling pastries, quiches, breads, candy booths selling every flavor of gummi candy available... and more.... it was so amazing.
And that was just the food. We also saw lots of clothing and mostly all modern. Underwear in not so small sizes, long skirts, little tiny t-shirts with the playboy logo, and cute little denim skirts for kids... There were men displaying painting gizmos that you'd see on an infomercial, mickey mouse clocks, cheap dollar store toys and merchandise, and bathroom fixtures. Mom found some nice fabric there and we saw a lot of linens too. A nice couple were selling pasta pots and we got one of those too. A coffee stand held large burlap sacks of coffee from around the world. It looked wonderful. I bought 5 sacks to have on hand for the next sack race we have here... and they are good for slides at the park too. Flowers and plants and trees... all sorts of garden supplies were there for the taking and people were walking away carried large shrubs in their arms.
And then... peacocks. From the bridge walking toward the market, I caught a glimpse of some cages with birds. As we walked there, we passed several people with boxes full of different birds... baby ducklings, a chicken. Then, walking through the market, mom got my attention. Walking by us was a man carrying a large box with a neat little twine handle on top. In the back was a hole cut out and sticking through that hole was the very large tail of a peacock. I couldn't believe it! There must have only been one peacock there that day because none of the bird venders had peacocks by the time I got to them, but they had adult ducks and baby ducks, all sorts of chickens with their eggs on display, so you know what kind they lay, perikeets and doves, and all shape and size of rabbit from the tiniest ones to the European giants. Mice, guinea pigs, chinchilla - they were all on sale at the market. The venders were nice. They all spoke French, Dutch, and English at least, but I heard German, Italian, and Spanish spoken by some venders as well.

I'd heard that the market was an antique market, but there was only one antique vender there. Her stuff was not impressive except for one nice bronze statue, but it was overpriced, so the temptation was not there. Still, it was a very nice market and fun to be there even with the crowds.
People here are very dog friendly and the dogs are very well trained and well taken care of. This one caught my attention. He and his friend both had cute leather purses around their necks.

We left the market twice to get coffee and then lunch later. The eateries we encountered were not great. It was actually very difficult to find real food. I'm sure it exists, but both places we went to served coffee, alcohol, and little food like a horribly limited assortment of sandwhiches. For lunch we had a caprese salad and a cheese plate - not huge nor gourmet, but tasty nonetheless. The waitress at the second location would only speak French and gave us extrememly poor service while being very chatty with everyone else there. On the way back from our walk we saw this old man sitting next to this statue talking. He was probably a bit crazy, but it was still kinda sweet.



This boy was playing with his ball in this street near the market. I liked the red ball... reminded me of the red balloon story I'd read when I was younger. Part of the market is up ahead - where the yellow awnings are.