AGBU Magazine |March 1995

France, Belgium

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BELGIUM: THE CAULDRON OF EUROPE

by Paul Martin It is best known for its chocolates, chips, beer and lace. Its favorite sons include Agatha Christie’s Inspector Poirot, boy-hero Mannikin Pis, Johnny Haliday, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Adolphe Sax, the inventor of the saxophone. But this tiny country of 10 million — with an area about the size of the Republic of Armenia — is not only home to the capital of modern Europe, but a cauldron of the continent’s past.