In Marialoop, part of Meulebeke, preschoolers talk about people and pets they have lost and draw them for a remembrance tree run by Reveil. Their teacher, Yenka, says children readily share memories of deceased pets but find it harder to express their own grief over the death of a person. Tielt’s designation as Belgium’s “Comfort Capital” has helped bring grief into public discussion. School director Eva Rubens, who spoke to pupils about her own breast cancer, says schools can offer children a place to discuss feelings that families may find difficult to address.

The Withuis, a 1920s Jette home designed by Joseph Diongre for writer Jef Mennekens, has been restored to its original architectural and interior character by owner Bernard Mulliez. Herman Mennekens, Jef’s great-grandson, recalls the house as a family home filled with books and art. The restoration revived the building’s original colors and design, informed by research from the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage. After welcoming visitors and hosting an exhibition on Belgian geometric abstraction, the protected 300-square-meter house is to be rented for €4,400 per month, with Mulliez seeking tenants he considers suited to its historic character.

French artist Guillaume Bottazzi lives and works in a 1912 Brussels townhouse that he redesigned as a unified environment for his art. Its varied colors, lighting, forms and architecture are intended to shape how visitors feel and experience each room. Bottazzi says his interest in neuroaesthetics grew after neuroscientists approached him to study the effects of his work on viewers. He aims to promote well-being while leaving interpretation to each visitor; the house opens to the public free of charge on the first Sunday of each month.

Brussels has tripled its rat-control budget to €90,000 and installed discreet sensor-equipped trap-benches in the pedestrian zone and near the Atomium. The city says the traps have caught about 1,200 rats and provide useful data on hotspots, often near fast-food outlets, supermarkets and green spaces. Officials argue the system has advantages over poison, though it is no cure-all. Food scraps and people feeding pigeons continue to attract rats, while enforcement of a €200 fine for leaving food in public is difficult. Some nearby businesses were not clearly informed that the benches concealed traps, a communication gap the city says it will address.

Thirty years after Julie and Mélissa were murdered and Sabine and Laetitia were rescued from Marc Dutroux’s house in Marcinelle, the site has been transformed into a modest memorial garden. The surrounding area remains impoverished and repeatedly affected by illegal dumping, undermining the memorial’s intended message of hope. Local residents describe the site as neglected and disconnected from the neighborhood, while 19-year-old Cameron, whose grandparents were displaced to make room for it, calls it a monument to missed opportunities and says a real park would have offered a more meaningful tribute.

A personal visit to the Mind of a Serial Killer exhibition in Brussels examines why audiences are fascinated by serial killers and whether the event crosses from education into spectacle. Although the exhibition invokes FBI profiling and offers background on notorious criminals, its shallow explanations, poor Dutch translations, photo opportunities, gruesome reconstructions and virtual-reality finale are criticized for prioritizing entertainment over psychological and social context. Visitors similarly call for more expert interpretation of the causes of violent behavior. The experience leaves the author's fascination intact but reduces their appetite for sensationalism.

The Belgian city of Huy has severed its official town-twinning relationship with Grenay in northern France after the Rassemblement National took control of the French municipality. The decision, made by Socialist mayor Christophe Collignon, excludes Grenay’s elected RN representatives and affiliated associations from the annual commemoration of 273 Grenay miners who were arrested during a 1941 strike and deported via Huy to Sachsenhausen. Collignon says the move applies Huy’s cordon sanitaire consistently and reflects the city’s commitment to multiculturalism and human rights, while ordinary Grenay residents remain welcome. The decision has nevertheless halted the usual exchange of visitors, with no Grenay bookings for Huy’s tourist boat or hotels ahead of the commemoration.

Theatre-maker Meike de Roest’s solo performance Levenslijn explores her experiences with cancer at 21, a later diabetes diagnosis, and the difficult process of rebuilding her life after treatment. The story challenges the assumption that being declared cured means immediately returning to normal, highlighting grief, isolation and the loss of a former sense of self. At the Fika-huis in Bruges, people living with illness recognize these struggles, while the organization’s new meeting bar aims to help young people share experiences and reconnect socially after illness interrupts their studies, careers and relationships.

A new Dutch translation of the medieval chivalric romance Ogier van Denemerken makes a largely lost Middle Dutch work accessible to modern readers. Only fragments of the Dutch version survive in Belgian libraries, while the complete German manuscript is held in Heidelberg. Belgian emeritus professor Armand Berteloot spent more than 15 years reconstructing the flawed hybrid text and translating it first into Middle Dutch and then modern Dutch. Publisher Acco hopes the edition will become a reference work for secondary and university education, highlighting the romance’s psychologically complex characters and themes of unjust rule, war and social chaos.

Safe mountain holidays require several months of physical and logistical preparation. Hikers should gradually build endurance and strength, test equipment and group dynamics in advance, plan overnight stops and supplies realistically, and learn to use both digital navigation tools and paper maps. Beginners are advised to choose lower-altitude destinations with good infrastructure, wear layered clothing and well-fitting footwear, carry individual first-aid kits and prepare alternatives for bad weather or fatigue. The central principle is to adapt the route to the group’s abilities and circumstances rather than rigidly pursuing an original plan.