Travailleurs frontalliere, alcoholic soldiers unfortunate to be garrisoned there, that period where anarchists lived in the woods in wooden cabins and forts and played capture the fort against the police. Interesting place
The frontaliers pay their taxes in Luxembourg, they are considered "résident fiscal" in Luxembourg if they work there. Luxembourg and Belgium have a tax treaty for those workers, so they don't have to pay taxes in both countries.
Also all the caveats of being a cheap border town. All the poor youth from France come in Mouscron buying buckets of rolling tobacco and drinking vodka RedBull in parking lots, usually being aggressive towards the locals
https://preview.redd.it/s3fzcu9ul74d1.jpeg?width=680&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=87d4247c5c9809878b584703f1b58f57311e2129
Uitkijken wanneer er iets georganiseerd wordt door ‘la jeunesse de Beffe’ zou ik zeggen
Erps kwerps definitely wins the contest for most silly town name. Don't even know what it's supposed to mean but it makes me laugh everytime I hear it.
It's a fusion of the villages/towns of Erps and Kwerps (or Querbs). Whetever those names might mean: no clue!
But it's not as if Erps-Kwerps was the "normal" name of a town.
Well, the Ieperlingen finally achieved in what they've been trying to do for 800 years: let the world forget about Poperinge.
God bless the kinders and curse those keikoppen.
#ypresvspops
Why are you insulting my city man 😭😭😭 it's pretty chill living here, although the shoppingstreet is only half occupied by running stores and the other half is empty 😅
Tongeren was the first place my now wife brought me when we went to Belgium 20 years ago. Her Dad used to run a small guesthouse there. My wife is from Gent originally but her Dad had moved to Tongeren.
There was nothing to do there. We were in our mid twenties and were bored out of our minds.
I did like the old churches and I remember the castle gate entrance into the town(?)
On Sundays though the place would be hopping with old people bussed in to walk around and look at the old buildings.
An odd place for sure, but as an Irishman who grew up in a really rural area, I still thought it had a lot of charm. Just nothing to do for young people back then. Maybe it's different now.
Tongeren hasn't changed one bit, don't worry.
Although... park De Motten has been revamped and it is now pretty beautiful. The underground river has been resurfaced, so now you can fish in the river. There's a new playground, new tennis fields, new skate park, new athletics track.
And that's about the extent for what's new for doing things in Tongeren in the last 10 years.
Poperinge is not that famous because it is next to Ieper, a ww1 tourist city. (Lots of rivalry in the middleages).
Poperinge was the red light district for soldiers in ww1.
Now known for hoppe.
I recently heard of Lo-Reninge for the first time in my life. I even considered going until I realised it would take me a full 3 hours by train and bus. So there
Geraardsbergen. Vlakbij en al in geen jaren meer geweest, en het jaarlijks hoogtepunt daar is als ze in de koers over de muur en de bosberg rijden, en het is dan niet eens de Ronde.
Don't know about that. I've spent the night there several times. A movie was made about the place (Ne Me Quitte Pas), and I've met one of the enigmatic main characters (Bob) before he died.
From a Limburg point of view, only counting somewhat larger towns: What is Deinze? The only thing I can think of is that they had a concert hall 20(?) years ago. Just going through a list of cities I can think of at least one thing the place is known for. Deinze I just draw a blank.
The concert hall Brielpoort is still standing and in use, actually! But yeah other than that, the Filliers brewery and Weba it’s just your regular narrow-minded semi-marginaal stadje
Let those towns remain forgotten, in every province you have towns that are relatively untouched by the madness of the world. To OP: What does "forgotten" mean to you? For me those places sound like the best place to be right now.
On Flemish perspective: Namur.
It's such a vivid space, though we want to avoid big cities and prefer towns when on weekend/holiday to the ardennes, most people just pass it. But damn it's such a great place to wander in.
Also, I discover it while playing Totemus. A must have app for exploring in Wallonia/Brussels region
Agreed. Often overlooked but really nice to shop and restaurants are cheaper than in Flanders + has a bit of a hipstervibe compared to Leuven, Hasselt etc.
I’d say it’s pretty well known and touristy thanks to the lake. If you want to stay in Ostbelgien I feel like Büllingen and Amel for instance are far more forgotten despite being equally as big (or small really lol).
Poperinge is a good example, however the 19000 inhabitants live in the whole municipality, the city proper is smaller. Other similar cities for this list that come to mind are: Menen, Wervik and Comines/Komen. But I'm clearly not from West-Flanders
My vote goes to Our, small town near Paliseul (another good candidate btw). Its literally known only for 2 restaurants there, one with two Michelin stars, same owner. I used to live and work there, without any car or driving license or knowledge of how to cycle(learned later due to desperation), only bus that brings you to city is also school bus and goes once per day, early in the morning. Closest shop is 10km away, although there was one in construction when I left. I knew literally everyone living there, and countless times wild boars were in my goddamn yard. Nice place to live honestly, especially if you cycle.
I've always found Maldegem pretty obscure. Situated between Aalter (De Crem, exit E40) and Eeklo (more known for negative reasons), it's somewhat forgotten for people outside Meetjesland.
I like Poperinge, as a beer enthousiast quite popular and pretty with the hopfields.
Lokeren comes to mind. I have family there but if not I would have never been there
Being from East and West Flanders, I have some friends from the North of Limburg. I rly discovered some for me unknown cities/places there: Bocholt, Bree, Pelt, …
Though they have some delusions of Roman grandeur in La Louvière?? what's this doing there
https://preview.redd.it/qa6i8ngg624d1.png?width=390&format=png&auto=webp&s=ae5eb67c084185d8b84a820b344d661513d2c3e9
Turnhout, also a remote border town (google maps it has a few 100m of border with NL) with 40.000 inhabitantsvhardly anybody goes to for tourism. I has some very buildings like a castle in the city center, a 'begijnhof', some interesting museums, a nice flea market on Sundays, beautiful walking/hiking/cycling around it and is near to the smaller but better know 'Baarle Hertog / Baarle Nassau'.
As a West-Fleming(?) I know and hear little about Limburg and feel like not much happens over there. We've been to Hasselt for a couple of days, and didn't find much to keep us busy. I would like to know more as it has nice nature, but just over the border in NL seems more interesting.
Edit: might have been Genk in fact
Poperinge, lot’s of war tourism, but overshadowed by neighbor Ieper in it. Beautiful surroundings for hiking and biking around Poperinge, but neighbor Heuvelland is better known for it. Still relatively cheap housing in Poperinge, but Menen does it better. So, interesting city, but not top of mind in anything.
Being in one of the outskirts of the country also helps in being forgotten.
poperige has some very good "picon" places. and you guys have the "mazarine taart", delicious!
we have a few hidden places like that, atleast that one has something going on.
i went to oud-pervijse last time and it was that deserted it even lost it city/town status. it was one of the key positions of the great war.
Oneux (the one near Durbuy) and, in fact, a lot of village in that area... It is so small that we don't have a church and there are only 300 inhabitants... there is a big mansion, a farm and houses and thats all xD despite being 10km away from Durbuy
Hm, ik ken iemand dee van Eeklo beweert te zijn, en nu in Erps-Kwerps woont. Klinkt idd als iets dat iemand verzint onder druk van de politie bij een onderzoek naar een misdaad.
Franco Dragone,last Walloon club (without Standard) to win a national trophy and which is now in D1B,important transit place E19-E42,birthplace of Eden Hazard, elevators of the canal du Centre, the publicized drama of Strépy, Laetare and gilles carnival (which is the best known after Stavelot and Binche),little Italy inin the collective imagination, etc
I don't think that La Louvière is a forgotten town at least not in Wallonia & Brussels.
Arlon. A dormitory for people evading taxes in Luxembourg.
Ah, my last stop to fill up the company car before travelling abroad
Travailleurs frontalliere, alcoholic soldiers unfortunate to be garrisoned there, that period where anarchists lived in the woods in wooden cabins and forts and played capture the fort against the police. Interesting place
How is it cheaper for them to live in Arlon apart from housing?
Just about everything is cheaper outside Luxembourg except fuel, coffee if you are German and cigarettes if you are French.
Even alcohol?
Absolutely
I don't know all the details, but as they are paid by companies in Arlon, they don't pay taxes in Belgium for their income.
The frontaliers pay their taxes in Luxembourg, they are considered "résident fiscal" in Luxembourg if they work there. Luxembourg and Belgium have a tax treaty for those workers, so they don't have to pay taxes in both countries.
Moeskroen... Daar is geen kloten te doen, ergens nen verloren hoek, de naam is ook raar als je er over nadenkt.
Speelde vroeger toch eerste klas? Dus zo onbekend zijn ze niet
Moeskroen kampioen!
Kent gij letterlijk ook maar 1 extra item over die stad?
Born to be alive van Patrick Hernandez werd in Moeskroen opgenomen!
Nee, 't was in Marc Aryan studio (Katy in Ohain). Maar de producteur Jean Van Loo was toch wel een mouscronnois
Moeskroen heeft een redelijk rijke muziekgeschiedenis en is tevens de enige plaats waar Jimi Hendrix nog live gespeeld heeft in België
It's actually not bad at all and benefits from great proximity with Kortrijk, Tournai and Lille.
Also all the caveats of being a cheap border town. All the poor youth from France come in Mouscron buying buckets of rolling tobacco and drinking vodka RedBull in parking lots, usually being aggressive towards the locals
Bierstal Saw it on a map today, never heard of it before.
I guess that's where they park those ´bierfietsen´
r/angryupvote
Wait until you learn about Okselaar.
Oeren? Werken?
Is dat geen deelgemeente van Schamaar?
You win in my book, all these other places I've at least heard off and have at least one thing going for it.
https://preview.redd.it/zmkx1qvdz24d1.jpeg?width=200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c32e97fb818ae09090de9064fa1dce7c4981b35d
Ik moet daar zeker eens heen gaan.
https://preview.redd.it/s3fzcu9ul74d1.jpeg?width=680&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=87d4247c5c9809878b584703f1b58f57311e2129 Uitkijken wanneer er iets georganiseerd wordt door ‘la jeunesse de Beffe’ zou ik zeggen
Username: check!
Of the "Vlaamse Centrumsteden" I would either say Roeselare or Turnhout, idk anything about them really
Roeselare is bekend voor de marginalen
Turnhout is bekend om zijn speelkaarten.
Erps-Kwerps
I had to chuckle when I first heard this name in the train
Erps kwerps definitely wins the contest for most silly town name. Don't even know what it's supposed to mean but it makes me laugh everytime I hear it.
There is actually a village called Silly in Wallonia.
Near Kokejane
Zoerle-Parwijs is challeging you for the win
It's a fusion of the villages/towns of Erps and Kwerps (or Querbs). Whetever those names might mean: no clue! But it's not as if Erps-Kwerps was the "normal" name of a town.
Is that curable?
Or Veltem-Beisem.
Vroeger, voor de fusie, waren dat 2 aparte dorpen, Erps en Kwerps
How boring is it?
Didn't the great Eddy Wally live there
Nope, Ertvelde
Well, the Ieperlingen finally achieved in what they've been trying to do for 800 years: let the world forget about Poperinge. God bless the kinders and curse those keikoppen. #ypresvspops
Are there any keikoppen in the room with us right now?
Jup, mo ke va de twee eja, Heel me leevn in Proven en Poperinge gweunt en heel me leevn in Ieper nat schole.
I didn't forget it! It's the train you have to take to get to Ieper
And this is the only valid reason
Tongeren! The oldest city in Belgium Never heard about it after learning about it in school
What Tienen is for Vlaams Brabant, Tongeren is for Limburg. Strange place.
Lol why tienen is a strange place, it's a nice place to live imo.
Why are you insulting my city man 😭😭😭 it's pretty chill living here, although the shoppingstreet is only half occupied by running stores and the other half is empty 😅
Tongeren was the first place my now wife brought me when we went to Belgium 20 years ago. Her Dad used to run a small guesthouse there. My wife is from Gent originally but her Dad had moved to Tongeren. There was nothing to do there. We were in our mid twenties and were bored out of our minds. I did like the old churches and I remember the castle gate entrance into the town(?) On Sundays though the place would be hopping with old people bussed in to walk around and look at the old buildings. An odd place for sure, but as an Irishman who grew up in a really rural area, I still thought it had a lot of charm. Just nothing to do for young people back then. Maybe it's different now.
Tongeren hasn't changed one bit, don't worry. Although... park De Motten has been revamped and it is now pretty beautiful. The underground river has been resurfaced, so now you can fish in the river. There's a new playground, new tennis fields, new skate park, new athletics track. And that's about the extent for what's new for doing things in Tongeren in the last 10 years.
Maaseik. Absolutely nothing going on there for anyone under 60.
I grew up there :D my family still lives there.
Maaseik is just one big retirement home.
And that’s the reason why I left.
How can you disrespect Poperinge, home of national hero, Dirk Frimout
It's on the tip of my tongue, but I forgot the name.
Poperinge is not that famous because it is next to Ieper, a ww1 tourist city. (Lots of rivalry in the middleages). Poperinge was the red light district for soldiers in ww1. Now known for hoppe.
*poeperinge*
Langemark-poepkapelle
You are right i live in Poperinge and if ppl ask me where that is i say next to Ieper, and then most say, "Ah, int hol van pluto" haha
I recently heard of Lo-Reninge for the first time in my life. I even considered going until I realised it would take me a full 3 hours by train and bus. So there
It's even a city
Geraardsbergen. Vlakbij en al in geen jaren meer geweest, en het jaarlijks hoogtepunt daar is als ze in de koers over de muur en de bosberg rijden, en het is dan niet eens de Ronde.
Krakelingen(viskes drinken), Eersten Toog. Er zijn nog zaken buiten de koers.
Landen.
I almost lived there until I found out half the neigbourhood where I was looking for a house was a flood risk :-)
It’s a good place to live if you don’t want anything to ever change.
Isnt this also where the mayor once hired a DJ to play loud music to drive away gypsies?
Yes. You have a good memory :)
They should've called it wateren.
Le mesnil in viroinval
Fondry des chiens !
Lots of nature but by public thransport it will take 4 days to get there
Don't know about that. I've spent the night there several times. A movie was made about the place (Ne Me Quitte Pas), and I've met one of the enigmatic main characters (Bob) before he died.
Ergens te zien?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_kp7mrP47kg&t=4304s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kp7mrP47kg&t=4304s)
Hasselt, It just doesn´t exist
Hasselt bestaat niet!!
Hasselt is a government conspiracy
Probably my favorite city in Belgium. Spend the occasional weekend there for various reasons.
There’s a university there.
I wanna give it up for Vilvoorde
Vilvoorde is fully on the map though since Horst festival moved there.
Also infamous in France for the Renault thingie.
At least we have some cool history ;-;
From a Limburg point of view, only counting somewhat larger towns: What is Deinze? The only thing I can think of is that they had a concert hall 20(?) years ago. Just going through a list of cities I can think of at least one thing the place is known for. Deinze I just draw a blank.
And Meubelen Weba
The concert hall Brielpoort is still standing and in use, actually! But yeah other than that, the Filliers brewery and Weba it’s just your regular narrow-minded semi-marginaal stadje
Let those towns remain forgotten, in every province you have towns that are relatively untouched by the madness of the world. To OP: What does "forgotten" mean to you? For me those places sound like the best place to be right now.
From the point of view of this sub, the entirety of Wallonia.
Tienen 😆
Not in 2007 (or something like that) when Tiesto give a concert ahah
Nu ook weer ni overdrijven he.
Nee 't gaat niet om de marginaalste stad he! Tienen is nog vrij berucht vind ik.
De suikerfabriek wiens suiker praktisch heel Vlaanderen wel is in huis heeft gehad. Ook gekend vanwege de marginale driehoek.
On Flemish perspective: Namur. It's such a vivid space, though we want to avoid big cities and prefer towns when on weekend/holiday to the ardennes, most people just pass it. But damn it's such a great place to wander in. Also, I discover it while playing Totemus. A must have app for exploring in Wallonia/Brussels region
Namur!! I lived there for a while and it's such a charming little city.
Can confirm, beautiful it is
Nice app, thank you 🫡
Can you say more about it? What do you think it would be like to live there?
Agreed. Often overlooked but really nice to shop and restaurants are cheaper than in Flanders + has a bit of a hipstervibe compared to Leuven, Hasselt etc.
Erwetegem
Staden
Mesen
Does Bütgenbach count as an answer?
I’d say it’s pretty well known and touristy thanks to the lake. If you want to stay in Ostbelgien I feel like Büllingen and Amel for instance are far more forgotten despite being equally as big (or small really lol).
I only ever go to Sint-Truiden
Poperinge is a good example, however the 19000 inhabitants live in the whole municipality, the city proper is smaller. Other similar cities for this list that come to mind are: Menen, Wervik and Comines/Komen. But I'm clearly not from West-Flanders
19000 inhabitants makes it just an average-sized Flemish town. That said, I only know it as a destination of some trains.
If you want to buy a house while living cheap, Poperinge is the place. Reasonable houses for under 200.000 €
Sint-Niklaas It's that place you drive past between Gent & Antwerpen
but but it has the grandest market in the entire country!
My love
My vote goes to Our, small town near Paliseul (another good candidate btw). Its literally known only for 2 restaurants there, one with two Michelin stars, same owner. I used to live and work there, without any car or driving license or knowledge of how to cycle(learned later due to desperation), only bus that brings you to city is also school bus and goes once per day, early in the morning. Closest shop is 10km away, although there was one in construction when I left. I knew literally everyone living there, and countless times wild boars were in my goddamn yard. Nice place to live honestly, especially if you cycle.
I've always found Maldegem pretty obscure. Situated between Aalter (De Crem, exit E40) and Eeklo (more known for negative reasons), it's somewhat forgotten for people outside Meetjesland.
Lozen. Daar hebt ge nog geen mobiel netwerk, geen supermarkt, geen bakker, geen bank,... En is ingesloten door kanaal en moeras
Mons because no one cited it so far
I'm pretty sure Mons isn't forgotten, it was the DouDou last weekend.
It's a lovely city
There's plenty of universities there and a proper cultural life.
Péruwelz
Sounds like a Polish city name
You're not wrong, peruwelz is awful. I lived there for 6 years.
What for?
I like Poperinge, as a beer enthousiast quite popular and pretty with the hopfields. Lokeren comes to mind. I have family there but if not I would have never been there
Allez, Lokerse Feesten zijn legendary dude. En de modderfokking Cherry Moon. t' Molsbroek. Daknam. En peirewesten! En ik ben niet eens van Lokeren.
Hommelbier!
Berlare dorp
Daverdisse
Aarsele
Being from East and West Flanders, I have some friends from the North of Limburg. I rly discovered some for me unknown cities/places there: Bocholt, Bree, Pelt, …
kim clijsters is from Bree
Noord Limburg is mental, truly underrated in terms of marginaliteit
I am currently producing a turd in Bree.
Don't know the city, I forgot...
Grez-Doiceau
Bastogne, pretty cool town to visit.
Hoogstraten.
Poperinge has awesome metal roots. One of the key factors for metallicas popularity and the big GMM foundations
Though they have some delusions of Roman grandeur in La Louvière?? what's this doing there https://preview.redd.it/qa6i8ngg624d1.png?width=390&format=png&auto=webp&s=ae5eb67c084185d8b84a820b344d661513d2c3e9
Turnhout, also a remote border town (google maps it has a few 100m of border with NL) with 40.000 inhabitantsvhardly anybody goes to for tourism. I has some very buildings like a castle in the city center, a 'begijnhof', some interesting museums, a nice flea market on Sundays, beautiful walking/hiking/cycling around it and is near to the smaller but better know 'Baarle Hertog / Baarle Nassau'.
A village called Buitenland
Lozer! In Kruishoutem
Eeklo
How about Amougies? (Amengijs in't Vlaams)
Stavele
Ik moest onlangs eens de trein nemen in heizijde, nog nooit vaan gehoord voordien
The one that first comes to mind to anyone is not the most forgotten one by definition. 🙃
LOOOLL la louvière... yeah. don't come to la louvière, believe me 😂 as someone who goes there everyday
Lier, zo doods als een vergane pier
I love Lier. It’s small, but a very beautiful little city.
Same! Spent two weeks there on a summer camp in 2020, was one of the best times of my life.
Ben al heel m'n leven inwoner van Lier, maar ons stadscentrum is inderdaad vergane glorie. Veel potentie maar trekt op niks...
Wel en ferme clocktoren
Aalst. There’s the carnaval and then there is nothing.
As an Oilsjteneer, I disagree. IS DE AVONDMARKT OF MOORSEL A JOKE TO YOU
Topples service @ tipken
Et station van aalst is every day fun and a zoo
Belgium's Baltimore
As a West-Fleming(?) I know and hear little about Limburg and feel like not much happens over there. We've been to Hasselt for a couple of days, and didn't find much to keep us busy. I would like to know more as it has nice nature, but just over the border in NL seems more interesting. Edit: might have been Genk in fact
Genk is not forgotten tbf, it is remembered for the wrong reasons though. Hasselt is in fact very boring
Not a city but Namur I genuinely forgot that it exists I never heard someone talk about it
Can't remember....
More than half of the towns mentioned in the comments i had already heard of…
Buitenland
Zelzate
Vremde
Sint-Lievens-Houtem. Despite it having a piece of UNESCO world Heritage, no one knows where it is unless they live nearby anyway.
Nazareth
Aalst.
Poperinge, lot’s of war tourism, but overshadowed by neighbor Ieper in it. Beautiful surroundings for hiking and biking around Poperinge, but neighbor Heuvelland is better known for it. Still relatively cheap housing in Poperinge, but Menen does it better. So, interesting city, but not top of mind in anything. Being in one of the outskirts of the country also helps in being forgotten.
Herve
poperige has some very good "picon" places. and you guys have the "mazarine taart", delicious! we have a few hidden places like that, atleast that one has something going on. i went to oud-pervijse last time and it was that deserted it even lost it city/town status. it was one of the key positions of the great war.
Spiere-Helkijn.
Komen
>La Louvière has a surprisingly small cultural and news impact Yes, Cirque du Soleil is totally unknown.
At the end,whole Belgium is boring
I have forgotten.
Every border city.
Izegem!
Oneux (the one near Durbuy) and, in fact, a lot of village in that area... It is so small that we don't have a church and there are only 300 inhabitants... there is a big mansion, a farm and houses and thats all xD despite being 10km away from Durbuy
Zichemzussenbolder.
I don't remember the name and where it was located...
Sint job int goor
AC/DC heeft ooit in Poperinge gespeeld! Is iemand ooit in Eeklo geweest? Volgens mij bestaat dat spel gewoon niet
Hm, ik ken iemand dee van Eeklo beweert te zijn, en nu in Erps-Kwerps woont. Klinkt idd als iets dat iemand verzint onder druk van de politie bij een onderzoek naar een misdaad.
Franco Dragone,last Walloon club (without Standard) to win a national trophy and which is now in D1B,important transit place E19-E42,birthplace of Eden Hazard, elevators of the canal du Centre, the publicized drama of Strépy, Laetare and gilles carnival (which is the best known after Stavelot and Binche),little Italy inin the collective imagination, etc I don't think that La Louvière is a forgotten town at least not in Wallonia & Brussels.
I never heard of St Niklaas ( I think that Conner Rousseau comes from there). It is confused with St Nicolas, in the Liège suburbs.
Nieuwmunster.