Bon Réveillon!

My avatar and I wish you all an excellent New Year's Eve and a marvelous 2009!

Ferris wheel in the sunset

The setting sun illuminates the Christmas Ferris Wheel in the Place Saint Lambert, in front of the Palace. For once, there's not a single cloud in the sky.

Skydome

The dome of the ancienne église Saint André, silhouetted against the sky and a passing plane.

Christmas on their minds

Christmas really went to their heads this year... A shop window on the Cathedral Square.

Back in Liège

I am back in Liège after a short visit to relatives in France for Christmas. I haven't got any new pictures so I am posting some slightly older photos of an interesting mural on the Boulevard d'Avroy. It comes from the art-deco façade of the Lycée Léonie de Waha, a formerly all-girl college. It appears that the students used to go to school almost completely naked:

Here's some more proof:

Notice, however, that the teacher was fully clothed...

Notwithstanding the subject matter, I do find the murals quite beautiful. The school is now a mixed college, called the Athénée Léonie de Waha and prides itself in being "l'autre voie de la réussite". This motto can be loosely translated as "the other way to success". I hope they don't mean success in English studies because their translation reads "the other way of the success".

Exposition

Buildings behind the Palace.

Awards

As I wrote yesterday, I was given these awards by mkhansen at Lexington Daily Photo. Thank you again!

Today I am passing on the awards to eight blogs I like very much. There's many other blogs I love but they've already received these awards!

Belgrade Daily Photo

Manchester in Pictures

Ramsey Daily Photo

Compostella Daily Photo

Thessaloniki Daily Photo

Palos Verdes Daily Photo

Molfetta Daily Photo

Daily Photos of Montana

For me, passing on the awards is a means of saying thanks for the interesting and beautiful pictures/content these blogger have been posting. They are not obliged to pass on the awards, this is not really a chain message as far as I am concerned.

Cathedral and aircraft

Yesterday I received an award from mkhansen at Lexington Daily Photo. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I will be passing on the award very soon, as I am not at home at the moment.

A view of St Paul's cathedral with a blue sky and aircraft con trails

The coming of the storm

Menacing clouds overhanging the cathedral.

Christmas lights

Christmas lights on the roof of the Galeries Saint Lambert shopping centre.

Final Santa

Here's my final Santa post. I promise. This time it's Mr and Mrs Santa themselves, handing out presents in the Christmas Village. They have the right age and size...

You can see my shadow on the gentleman's coat!

Hell's Santettes

Another couple of unconventional Santas. Totally female and fully motorized. They're pulling enormous adverts for a well-known electronics retailer. A passer-by shows them the way...

Miss Santa

Here's another unconventional version of Santa: Miss Santa and Rudolph the enormous, horny (OK, be-horned) squirrel. Both posing for me in a department store.

Santa is tall and skinny

An uncharacteristically tall and thin Santa descended upon the Galeries Saint Lambert shopping center. I am not sure what he thought of the amorous couple in the background...

Weird reflections

Interesting reflections on the facade of the Royal Walloon Opera.

The full moon

The recent full moon was the biggest in 15 years. Here it is, competing with the lights of the Place St Etienne.

And here is a close up. I still don't know how to shoot the moon without overexposing it...

The view from the top

Once you're on the Ferris wheel, that's what you see:

La roue de Noël

This photo was taken while riding the Ferris wheel in the Christmas Village.

Fire in the night

No, Liege is not on fire. This is the site of the Arcelor Mittal steelworks on the Meuse, working the night away. There still appears to be some activity despite the financial crisis and the recent job cuts.

Extreme close-up!

Poor standard

On Saturday we went to a football match in Liège for the first time. Standard de Liège played Zulte Waregem. As the Standard are third in the league and challengers for the first place, while Zulte Waregem are 10th, it was supposed to be a walk in the park. It was not, the away team ended up winning 1-2. Nevertheless, it was a nice experience, I liked the atmosphere of the game. The fans were passionate but not violent. Here's a view of a stand full of Standard fans.

Here's an action from the first half, the Standard are attacking.

At half time, they released all these balloons as part of a campaign called Men Against Violence to Women. The police strongly encouraged us to sign the petition as soon as we entered the stadium. I just love such grass roots initiatives.

A rainbow interlude

The rainbow put in an appearance during one of the very short and few sunny spells we had this week.

Saint Nicolas

Saint Nicolas' day is December 6 but he's been around for at least a week and he'll stay for another week or so... Saint Nicolas gives presents to good children but he is accompanied by the Père Fouettard (Whipping Father), who dispenses lumps of coal or even whippings to bad children. He's black either because of the coal or because he goes down chimneys.

What exactly are the Père Fouettard and the old lady doing to Saint Nicolas?

Return of the snow

This was the view from my office window this afternoon.

Earlier on though, the sun was nowhere to be seen...

Pork!!!!

Another example of the culinary delights on offer at the Christmas Village. Who said that continental cuisine is all about balanced and delicate flavours? No comment on the cook...

Le cortège de la Saint Nicolas

In Belgium and the Netherlands, Saint Nicolas' Day is a student festival. Students consider it as their day, and they participate in several festivities, most of which involve the consumption of mythical amounts of alcohol. The result is chaos and disruption for the cities in which the festival takes place. This year, the mayor of Liege decided to minimize the disruption by relocating Saint Nicolas's Day on Monday 1 December instead of 6 December. Here's a few pictures of the highlight of the festivities, the Saint Nicolas procession. The students are wearing their traditional lab coats... making it look like a procession of mad scientists.