Living heritage

To wrap up the summer holidays, we took out the car. We don’t do that often, we usually go by bike or public transport, but today’s destination was somewhat of a challenge. We wanted to visit the Living Heritage Expo in Provinciaal Domein Puyenbroeck, in Wachtebeke. There isn’t really a motorway between Sint-Jans-Molenbeek and Wachtebeke. And no railway either.
Living heritage, that is the cow, the horse, the dog, the sheep, the chicken and the goose ‘van bij ons’. The Mergelland sheep that grow our Mergelland wool are living heritage. So is the Malines at the chicken poulterer’s counter, or the Belgian Red that you see grazing around the town of Veurne.
Our timing was right, we arrived just after a huge downpour. Everything wet, except us.
Actually, I was particularly curious about the Laeken sheep, because it has such a nice story attached to it: the sheep would have their name because they were employed to keep the lawns of the royal palace in Laeken short. It is said to have good wool. A few years ago Bruzz featured an article about this rare breed. Laeken sheep we found, and also a Laekenois shepherd – the dog that goes with the sheep.
We didn’t necessarily have to go to Puyenbroeck on that day, we learned. The estate permanently houses an entire zoo of living heritage. It’s a vast property, always good for a nice walk on a lost afternoon. There is also a swimming pool, indoors and outdoors!
Surely the best haul of the day was the lovely book we found at the Living Heritage Support Centre: a book full of information about all those animals from here, some under threat of extinction, some completely gone and some very popular since hundreds of years. I also learnt a new word in Dutch: never knew a bouvier is actually a ‘koehond’ or cow dog!
For the way back, we took the short route, right through the ribbon development along Flanders’ ugliest roads. That as well is heritage.