When Amber and I moved to Brussels, we decided that it would be fun to visit every single park in the city. But how would we know how many parks are in the city, or what and where they are? We started with the list that we saw displayed at Abbaye de la Cambre, quickly realising that it is a feature in all the spots listed on it. We counted 102 parks and green spaces, and so began our quest. Weekend plans were designed so new parks could be included in the itinerary. A spreadsheet was made. With spring and summer gone, here’s a log of where we’ve been so far:
🌳 Parc du Bempt 🌳 Parc Jacques Brel 🌳 Parc de Forest 🌳 Parc Duden 🌳 Parc Baron Pierre Paulus 🌳 Parc de la Porte de Hal 🌳 Parc d'Egmont 🌳 Square du Petit Sablon 🌳 Jardin du Mont des Arts 🌳 Parc de Bruxelles 🌳 Abbaye de la Cambre 🌳 Square du Jardin du Roi 🌳 Etangs d'Ixelles 🌳 Parc Léopold 🌳 Jardin Félix Hap 🌳 Parc du Cinquantenaire 🌳 Parc Tenbosch 🌳 Parc Montjoie 🌳 Parc Brugmann 🌳 Parc de Wolvendael 🌳 Bois de la Cambre 🌳 Forêt de Soignes 🌳 Parc Tercoigne 🌳 Parc de la Héronnière 🌳
Some of these parks, we have gone to only once; others more times than I can count. One was a complete disappointment to me, but the rest had their charms, even if small. We’ve celebrated birthdays in parks. We’ve gone to watch birds, to read, to exercise, to have picnics, to eat and drink at their guinguettes. Sometimes we’ve gone just out of habit. It has been a treat.
Since we began, we’ve chanced upon parks that are not in the list we were consulting, and found that an updated list lives online. A few that we visited — 🌳 Jardin des Sculptures 🌳 and Hippodrome de Boitsfort — are included in the latter record, but not former. Others like 🌳 Parc Buchholtz 🌳 and 🌳 Jardin de la Vallée de Maelbeek 🌳 appear in neither. With the updated list in hand, we’re realising we might have walked around some like 🌳 Square de la Putterie 🌳 without realising they were recognised because of their size. All of this has made keeping count complicated, but that’s not really the point, is it?