Sat, 20 March 2010
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Editor Paul Morris is kidnapped by friendly French publishers, meets a Belgian with a dream, and is forced to enjoy very local fine wine: all that in Auvers-Sur-Oise.The mysterious email message said "be at up at Café l”Empereur (l’Arc de Triomphe) at 1 pm sharp". I braved the downpour and waited in a window seat. A gaggle of English speakers had taken over a couple of tables and I wondered if they had also agreed to the mysterious proposition or perhaps they were just passing a Paris Sunday in a café. The rain became a deluge and they began to talk about the "right footwear for Auvers-Sur-Oise". I looked at my runners and imagined myself slipping and sliding in the mud and embarrassing myself even more than usual.
"Surely they aren’t taking us into a muddy field for a book launch? Was this a trip to the real countryside? I am allergic to the real countryside!". I screamed within.
Soon umbrella-brandishing folk turned up and led us all to waiting coaches. And we were whisked off, kidnapped in friendly fashion by publishers Les Editions Diateino. All of Paris fled past as we took to the motorway and headed north west. I had lived for years in Lille but had never heard of Auvers-Sur-Oise (the signposts began to appear) partly because I always headed straight for Paris and from there southwards to the Cote D’Azur.
As the coach slowed in the centre of the village, it was immediately clear that this is no ordinary place. The tiny mairie has a board in front of it, and on it a copy of a painting of the selfsame mairie. All was to be revealed as we were ushered into the Auberge Ravoux, the café where Vincent van Gogh and his artist chums used to knock back the absinthe.
Dominique Janssens, founder and curator of the Maison van Gogh, explained how the town had become a haven for artists and each of them had left a mark on the place but none was more indelible than van Gogh's. He lived above the café, and it was here that he shot himself and died from his wounds.
This handy guide from Expertise in Labour Mobility includes how to write a CV, application procedure, interview dos and don'ts, Belgian management culture.
Belgium’s first alternative directory assistance services - available through the shortcode 14-14 - can now be accessed on the internet.
Moving to Belgium presents a host of challenges to expats, not least of all finding the right home.
The psychological effects of global mobility can be physically painful.
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