I took the photos below in a town called Moeskroen in Belgium’s south, about an hour past Neufchateau. On the map, the town has so much potential: the tiny sliver of Hainault protruding into French and Belgian Flanders. On the map its a tough call as to whether Moeskroen (Mouscron) prefers the French or the Dutch language. Googlemaps places its outer fringes in Netherlanderphonic hands, whereas the area around the train station is plainly Francophone.

Lookey here between Mouscron I and II industrial estates. French-speaking to the left. Dutch-speaking to the right.

zoom in

I’ve had the fortune to meet several Dutch-speaking Belgians in the course of the past few weeks. When I informed of my fascination with Mouscron the replies were jokes and disbelief. How could I give a damn about tiny, neglected, industrial Mouscron? Because I didn’t know the truth!

…got dropped off at the Mouscron train station, a cold blustery February day awaited me. Most of the cafés on the road across from the train station were shut, so i proceeded inland into neighborhood upon neighborhood of desertion. Nobody home! A few kids, who only spoke French, were keeping it gangsta in the streets, and I walked further and further into increasing desolation.

These kids keeping it gangsta had me wondering, are there Netherlanderphonic and Francophonic gangs in the border towns? Unfortunately this would not be without precedent. The truth is often more interesting than fiction, and Belgium is always more interesting than fiction.

I found a bowling alley, but that bastion of Americana bored me.

I found a fascinating “step-in” which is incidently only three letters away from being a “shut-in”. The “step-in”, which consists of an awning on the streetfront with various vending machines, is a place you can go shopping without having to utter a single word.   Who couldn’t love the retro fonts and bars on the machines?  Adorably asocial.

Do the Mouscronites go into the streets in shifts?

• Dutch-speakers out and about from 6-8am,
• French-speakers take care of business from 8-10am
• Dutch-speakers attend to the day from 10am-noon,
• etc.?

Is that how Belgium manages its language-borders, by leaving a trail of empty cities between the French- and Dutch-speaking portions. A no-man’s land, demilitarized zone, where only foolhardy American tourists go walkabout?

It was too cold for me to hang out that evening in the step-in, although I’m sure it would have been awesome (”Which of you vending machines speak Dutch?”), so i proceeded north to Courtrai. Or Kortrijk. Yes, you guessed correctly, its totally Dutch speaking. And only 8 minutes and 2.50euro up the line from Mouscron.