If you still like train travelling Liege would be a good destination: the new tgv station is sensational. Not quite finished and not quite integrated in its surroundings, but a really daring building (in a city that is much nicer than its reputation in the Netherlands).

Tiens, I didn't know Simenon was even from Belgium. According to Wikipedia he was even half-Dutch! Somehow I always assumed he was from Paris.

Liege is definitively worth a visit: the old city, the steps and little parks in the hills on the outskirts of the town and even the weapons museum of the famous FN Herstal factories.

Vocation of unhappiness

It was Simenon who said:
"Writing is considered a profession, and I don’t think it is a
profession. I think that everyone who does not need to be a writer,
who thinks he can do something else, ought to do something else.
Writing is not a profession but a vocation of unhappiness. I don’t
think an artist can ever be happy."
Paris Review Interview 1955 http://tinyurl.com/5lr5nw

I wonder if this is true. Painters and sculptors often seem happy enough. Are writers unhappy? And if this reflects on Simenon himself, did his childhood in Liege have something to do with it. Were his liaisons with 8,000 prostitutes a "vocation of unhappiness" too? (Admittedly this figure may be inflated, but the consensus is that it was a great many.)

@Carlos
Can an office clerk ever be happy?
Maybe the formula of happiness for men is the size of the penis divided by the number of prostitutes visited.
(No, this time I do not give any numbers, sorry)
Thanks for the interesting link.

I wonder how the world will look like once it is as normal for a woman to visit a male prostitute as it was for Simenon.

@Mieke
Not that different, I assume. Even Simone de Beauvoir hired a boy for ‘her first time’ if I remember the autobiography correctly. Also, male prostitution for women is (slightly) recommended these day in popular magazines and books. And it seems women tend to go to Africa in their quest for satisfaction. Go for it and get spoiled!

Liege

Is this an incrowd blog only, do I need a membership, must one be a Grunberg addept? Or is just being me, a would be smart ass motherfucker enough? And btw, receive Mr. Grunberg money for every hit on a translation site, nice to see all those native Flemish and Dutch speakers struggling with the english language (like myself) altough the result is, I must say, more than good, as well for the grammatical as for the content, it's just funny and maybe a little too much arty-farty, but hey, we only live once (if we're lucky), don't we?

I like that Mieke character btw, if she's still looking for a male prostitute...

Strasse

Thanks, I'll consider the offer.