Suddenly, Belgium:

Charleroi-ling the News

From Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal front page:

Tour Embraces a Town’s Ugly Truth: It’s a Dump

In Charleroi, Slag Heaps + Abandoned Subway = Tourist Attractions

CHARLEROI, Belgium—Nicolas Buissart leads an “Urban Safari” that includes climbing a slag heap, exploring never-used metro stations, walking down streets reputed to be the ugliest in this country, and visiting the house where the painter Magritte’s mother lived—before she drowned herself in the canal. If this sounds like fun, hop into his van, which has no seats . . .

The rundown industrial city of 200,000 in Belgium’s French-speaking south is now best known for its no-frills airport—and other unpleasantness. Charleroi’s 25.5% unemployment rate, for example, is more than double the national average.

Not exactly a Belgian tourist promotion, eh?

Cut to . . .

Brussels Sprouts in the News

From PRI’s The World on Monday:

A smelly problem in Brussels’ subway

As the home of the European Commission and the European Parliament, Brussels is often considered the “Capital of Europe.” So, you’d think the city’s subway system would reflect the city’s place in the world. But as The World’s Clark Boyd reports, many in Brussels find plenty to sniff at when it comes to their Metro system.

Listen here.

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