Belgium Travel Forum

Dear VTers

I'm a great fan of Tintin and am thinking of visiting Belgium in October. Are there any specific towns or spots with Tintin themes? I've read about a neighbourhood which has walls painted with comic characters - would someone be able to give directions to that?

Many thanks in advance!!

http://www.tintin.be/
Think they are building or have built a museum in Louvain La Neuve.

The museum in Louvain-La Neuve will not open before 2009. But surely the Belgisch Centrum van het Beeldverhaal (museum of Belgian comics) in Brussels will be interesting. In that city you will also find the painted walls.

Don't miss Stokkel metro station in Brussels!

I read on xpats.com that someone has a school visit already planned this year to the Tintin/Hergé museum in Louvain-la-Neuve! In the meantime of course you have the comic book museum in Brussels but there is no one specific neighbourhood painted with comic book characters - they are all over the city, although some of them pretty hard to find. However, none of these are of Tintin, for that you have to go to Stockel metro station as has been said. If you google Brussels comic murals you will find plenty of information including maps of the "parcours bandes dessinées", see www.erasmuspc.com/index.php?option=com_content&;task=view&id=258&Itemid=58

They've made a musical out of on of the TinTin stories!
In Belgium it will be playing 5th of July 2007 - 19th of August 2007 in Oostende in Kursaal

and just recently there is a whole series of stamps available about TinTin.

Dear all

THANKS! You guys have been fantastic - one reason I love VT!!

There's a Tin Tin shop in Brugges, near to the main square.

Also, (I don't know if it is a permanent exhibition - perhaps another VTer will know) when we went to the Atomium (Brussels) there was a big Tin Tin exhibtion inside

Yes, that's true - there used to be a Tin Tin thing in Atomium in "my days".

Captain Haddock's mansion is in a Brussels commune called Uccle but I cannot give you the exact address. It was discovered by a friend of my mum's living nearby and recognising it. Tintin himself is said to have spent more time in the commune of Etterbeek near the EU quarters.

There was no Tintin anything in the Atomium the last time I visited, which was shortly after it re-opened after renovation. But if you consult www.atomium.be you should find out what temporary exhibitions are on there at the moment. There are several elsewhere in Brussel at the moment, or which have just ended, but I'm sure the Espace Hergé at the Musée de la Bande Dessinée is permanent. The Tintin stamps went on sale there on 19 May, there was also a special Hergé coin on "presale" at the Hergé exhibition at the Hôtel de Ville that finished on 3 June.
I have discovered there are a few Tintin murals in Brussels other than the ones in Stockel metro station. One was inaugurated at Gare du Midi this January, see http://www.tintin.com/download/fresqueGareMidi/index.html, and there is another one outside the station, this could be something referred to as the Tintin building in nearby Place Bara, at any rate you should look for the "Tour des Pensions". There is also a Tintin mural in rue de l'Etuve which I had forgotten about - you will see it if you visit the Manneken Pis, rue de l'Etuve is the street that leads there from the Grand' Place, you'll see the mural after crossing the rue Lombard.
If you are interested in non-Tintin comic book murals as well (including other Hergé murals like Quick & Flupke, this one in the Marolles on the corner of rue Haute and rue Capucins), you can get information at the tourist office in rue du Marché aux Herbes on a walk taking them in, although you should be warned that they are spread over quite a wide area of Brussels. There are websites devoted to the subject also, and a book which, however, seems to be out of date as I regularly come across murals that aren't in it.

If you are in France, visit the Château de Cheverny which is the inspiration for Moulinsart.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moulinsart