November 11, 2025 • 23 mins
Pippa Hudson speaks to Leanne de Bassompierre about her extensive travels in Belgium as we Wander the World in that country.
Lunch with Pippa Hudson is CapeTalk’s mid-afternoon show.
This 2-hour respite from hard news encourages the audience to take the time to explore, taste, read, and reflect. The show - presented by former journalist, baker and water sports enthusiast Pippa Hudson - is unashamedly lifestyle driven. Popular features include a daily profile interview #OnTheCouch at 1:10 pm. Consumer issues are in the spotlight every Wednesday while the team also unpacks all things related to health, wealth & the environment.
Thank you for listening to a podcast from Lunch with Pippa Hudson
Listen live on Primedia+ weekdays between 13:00 and 15:00 (SA Time) to Lunch with Pippa Hudson broadcast on CapeTalk https://buff.ly/NnFM3Nk
For more from the show, go to https://buff.ly/MdSlWEs or find all the catch-up podcasts here https://buff.ly/fDJWe69
Subscribe to the CapeTalk Daily and Weekly Newsletters https://buff.ly/sbvVZD5
Follow us on social media:
CapeTalk on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CapeTalk
CapeTalk on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@capetalk
CapeTalk on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/
CapeTalk on X: https://x.com/CapeTalk
CapeTalk on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CapeTalk567
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Join the conversation.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
This is Cape Talk.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
It is time to wander the world, and today we
are doing some armchair travel to Belgium, and our guide
on this journey is going to be a very familiar
voice to you. My former colleague, Leander Basselpierre, recently returned
to South Africa. She's just been appointed business editor for
the Africa Report. Congratulations Leanne, and welcome home. It's great
to see you back on SASIL.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Thank you so much. Pepa.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
It's really great to be back and to be back
on Cape Talk. I've been listening for the past couple
of months and it just feels like so warm and fuzzy,
all the familiar voices, and I'm very happy.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
To be back.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Well, we're so happy to have you with us today.
Because the minute I saw Taste of Belgium was happening
this weekend, I said to my producer, we need to
talk about travel to Belgium and we are going to
tell you all about Taste of Belgium at the end
of the interview. But then I said, we know exactly
who we need to get in as a guest for
this segment, because the clue is in her surname.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Leanne.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
You married to the Belgian national and your boys are
Belgian South African citizens, so you spend quite a bit
of time though, don't you.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
We do spend lots of time.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
So for the past twenty years, even before we started
having kids, we've spent our summers there, and thanks to
global warming, the summers are becoming hot and hot. I
remember first going to Belgium about twenty years ago in
the summer and I was like, this is not summer.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
It is raining. It doesn't count all the time.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
And they say this in Belgium, they said, if you
especially about Brussels, the capital, they say, if it's not raining,
it's either just rained or.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
It's about to rain.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
And I think in recent years we have to kind
of relook that because it's not been my experience the
last few summers. I feel like you either get a
hot July or hot August, but not both, but you
get some hot weather which has been quite nice. And
so our summers are primarily spent in the Ardenne region,
which is a very beautiful part of Belgium, and I
(01:48):
think often overlooked for travelers outside of Europe. So European
travelers they will go to that region. They love hiking
and on the Merged River, there's so much to do.
Something that I like to do is doing cycling along
the river. And you've got camp sites that you've got
peppered across the river, and you've also got the abbey's
(02:08):
where you still have the microbreweries and you have some
monks that are still producing that b and so you
can visit the abbey, you can have a camping trip,
you can get some exercise with the cycling, and it's
quite a robust, active vacation that you can have. So
that's what we spend a lot of our summer doing.
My boys then spend another ten days at Scout camp
(02:30):
and that's actually taken us across Belgium because it's especially
when they're in the younger ages, so the cub Scouts,
they will be in Bruges or in Hence or in
other small towns in Belgium, and that's got in us
to travel.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Actually, So when we've gone.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
To Bruges, which is really a mussy little town it is,
they say, you know, it's got the little canals that
you have in Amsterdam, so taking little boats and doing
tours of the canal. Of course, there's chocolate to be
eats and lots of lace. Actually, that's what Bruges is
very well known. Kent is another small town like that,
but it's got.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
A more students feel. So if you.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
Maybe travel on a budget, Hint is somewhere that you
could get very expensive things but also very cheap options
in terms of accommodation, in terms of things to do,
in terms of sights.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
But of course.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
Belgium is known for its chocolates, it's beer, and it's
tinton and those are the things that you will see
in all the different parts of Belgium that you go to.
Even though it's a country that is very small country,
but you have three distinct languages in the country. You
have very different cultures also because you'll see in the
(03:40):
Wallonia region, which is the French speaking region, which is
in the arden.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
That I was speaking about earlier.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
You will have, as I said, it's very beautiful in nature,
but it's French speaking and very different, whereas in the
Flemish speaking which is the language that's very close to
Dutch and even very similar to Afrikaans. It's funny because
my father's Afrikaans, my father in law and my father
in law speaks Flemish pactice.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
And they understand each other and they understand. So yes,
is that similar? Okay?
Speaker 4 (04:09):
Even though you sometimes think can I understand? You know,
you can understand better than what you can actually speak.
But definitely written Flemish you can understand.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
To read, Okay.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
So Flemish French is the third one German or Germany.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
It's a very very small percentage in the east of
the country and mostly in rural, rural parts of Belgium,
but it is, it is a population, is the third
official language.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Now let's talk about getting there the basics. Can you
flyind direct from Cape Toon to Brussels or does one
have to go to a via via somewhere else in Europe?
Speaker 4 (04:38):
There are sometimes seasonal flights between South Africa and Belgium
because there is a very huge population of Belgians in
South Africa. Acly okay, I mean some years ago. The
figure that I had was something like twenty six thousand
Belgians at the time, and it's mainly Belgians that had
left Congo and then had come you know, they were
(05:00):
to African to go back to Belgium. And you know,
South Africa was a good common ground, okay to come.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
To that's interesting.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Hence the appeal of the Taste of Belgium event happening
at the Residents this weekend, so you.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
Feel exactly exactly, and of course the fantastic beer that
you get.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
In all the other treats.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
So Belgium music country, as I said, of beer, and
they are one thousand, five hundred different beers that you
should have. So of course you can go to the
Stellar Artois Museum and have the stellar Atois experience, which
I think most people, if they know Belgian beer, they
think of Stellatore, but actually Belgium is really well known
for its microbreweries and its specialty beers. My favorite I'm
(05:41):
not about. I'm not really a beer drink, but I
love a beer called Crick and it's a it's a
cherry beer and it's just delicious.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
I was going to say, I associate fruit beers with Belgium,
and I've never encountered the concept before going to a
Belgian event where somebody fell and they gave me I
think a pair favorite beer, yes, and so oft Is.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
I mean, you can't have too many because it's just
very heavy, but it is delicious and you know you think,
oh it's sweet and it's not going to do.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Anything that it goes to your head at some point
famous last words.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
In fact, some beers you know, have a such a
high alcohol content like twenty seven twenty eight percent that.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
You think, oh, it's just a couple of beers that
I'm drinking, and then you know it very quickly can
go to your head. Okay, so you're not going to
drive after those.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
On that note, public transport, if you're visiting as an
outsider without a car, is there public transport really available?
Speaker 2 (06:32):
How do people get around?
Speaker 4 (06:33):
I think public transport is readily available, but Brussels actually
I find competes to other European cities. People have cars
and people get around with their cause. Even though public
transport is very readily available in the capital, you can
get around in tram you can get around in very
expensive Belgian taxis, which are all Mercedes Benz.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
By the way, interestingly uber Is.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
There is the Metro. But as I said, you know,
people do get around mostly in their cars, I find,
which is very different compared to other cities. In fact,
my brother in law works with mobility and so his
project that he's been doing is try to connect the
city a bit better in terms of people coming from
the metro and then linking to the other modes of
(07:19):
public transport in the city, so.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
You're not going to see what you see just across
the road in Amsterdam not far away. Bicycles everywhere you
do see a lot of that.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
I think there's really been a huge drive to do
a lot more on on.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Bicycle, especially in Brussels.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
You also see that in Antwerp, which is the diamond
capital of the world.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
And I must say, if you are going to make
it to Antwerp, they have the world's best.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
Chocolate museum and it is I visited it two years
ago for the first time, and because I've done a
lot of work in coco, having lived in Courtivois, which
is the world's number one coco producer, it was beautiful
in the way that they yes, Belgium is known for chocolate,
but they also assume that chocolate does not come from Belgium.
So they've refined the process of making chocolates, so taking
(08:03):
the raw beans and then the you know, turning it
into into finished products in the end. So they really
take you through that whole journey from being.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
To bar and what that means.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
So it's a beautiful experience, and so I would really
there are others smaller museums in Brussels, in Hent, in Bruges,
because it's such a chocolate you know, obsessed country and
well known for its chocolate, but that particular one I
think is well worth visiting.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
In unverb Okay, thanks for the tip chart. Thank you
writing in to say one of my favorite places to be.
It is so beautiful to ride your bike through Flanders,
is his comments. So there we go echoing that cycling
culture is part of part.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Of the deal over there.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
So you see it more in Flanders because you have
it's flatter, so it's like the Netherlands, and you see
it I think less in Wallonia, Okay.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Now, Leon obviously an old country with a very long
and rich history and lots of medieval sites and I
think three thousand castles.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Somebody told me exactly. It's that it's the country in
the world with.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
The highest number of castles, highest density of castles, and
so I find that very interesting because every small little
town has their little castle and their medieval castle, and
actually once a year the owners of the private owners
of those castles, they actually have to make the property
available for the public to seek, so it would be
(09:19):
on the equivalent of Heritage Day where they have to
make this publicly open.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
It's part of owning that and part of the.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Heritine, so it's not lost to the public even though
it's in private hands.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
That's exactly exactly, Okay.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Just for anybody who's coming in midway to this conversation,
you recognize the voice, of course, it belongs to Leander Bassampierre,
previously part of the Cape Talk team and just returned
to South Africa after many years traveling the world. She
is married to a Belgian national. Her children are South
African Belgian citizens and they travel obviously very often to
Belgium to see friends and family and to visit homes.
(09:54):
So she's had a lot of experience of going there
as a South African visitor on a South African paspital,
although must probably by now a Belgian passport.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
No, no, not only eighteen years married and still no
Belgian passport. But I have residents for Belgium, so it
is easy for me to travel. Okay, So you know, no,
I don't have to get a visa, but I do
have a residence card, so I can travel very easily
in and out of the country. Of course, Belgium is
in the Shngen country, so if you have a Shangen visa,
you can easily enter Belgium on that visa. If you
(10:24):
are applying for a Shangen visa, then you have and
Belgium is your first job.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
You have to go to the Belgian embassy. Okay, good
to apply.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
For at the embassy itself.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
No, they're the different processes that you have now. But
I think you know it's there are very many options
of going to Belgium. I said earlier that you know,
seasonally they sometimes have direct flights between Belgium and South Africa,
but all the big companies that fly into into Cape
Town they have flights. So we are going in a
(10:54):
month's time and we're taking Turkish airlines by Istamachol. I
found that that seemed to be the shortest leg over
four especially when you're traveling with kids. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
In factor, yeah, and the cost of flights Europing.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
What it is exactly exactly, and so you know that
it depends when you buy. If you buying forty five
days minimum in advance, and all these great you know
banking apps now that you can buy it directly through
the bank and get the discounts. I'm taking advantage of
that because they really are very interesting and I'm not
being paid to say that. But there are many options now,
(11:27):
I think, and that's what's great for South Africans that
you don't have to think, oh, con travel because everything
is so expensively.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Four thousand return ticket kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
You can if you do your homework, find something exactly,
a little bit exactly.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
So we paid in the region of twelve thousand ran
for our flights for the end of the year, which
we obviously bought in advance and with you know points
and with and discounts, et cetera.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
But that is reasonable. It's very especially when you are
a family of five, so.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
You considerma gosh, I can't have older kids to travel
with now. I can't imagine to get in the young days. Yeah,
I want to pause for a second and and talk
about some of these sort of historical sites to visit.
And obviously Brussels being the capital, I know they've got
the famous square that is one of the most famous
the ground.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
Plus I think it's at com plus it's beautiful and
every second year they have what they call tappy de fleur,
so it's a carpet of flowers and it's so beautiful,
and so if you are planning a trip to Belgium
to try to do it around that time, it is
just incredible to see really beautiful. The square itself is
(12:28):
very interesting because you have all these gilded buildings around
you know from the former different trades that people had,
so you have the tailor's guild, and you have all
these the banking guild, and you have all these different buildings.
Belgium is also Brussels specifically is also known for its
Art Nouveau buildings, and so you can do a walking
tours that takes you around the square and gives you
(12:51):
very interesting perspective of what you see, so you're not
just going okay, com plus, okay.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
What's next, beautiful bullding, but what is it exactly? And
then around.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
So there are lots of restaurants obviously on the square,
like any of the squaes in Europe that they so expensive.
So I would suggest going you know, two or three
streets away and then finding the very traditional Brassri where
you have Mulfritz, which is the muscles that you absolutely
have to have. And fries and I must say, after
twenty years, I do have my fries with mayonnaise and
(13:23):
it's delicious.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
You finally knuckle down and given up on the tomato source.
I love it. Molfeet I know, one of the dishes
on the menu at the Taste of Belgium event this
coming weekend, by the way, So if you've never had it,
here's your opportunity to go and try something different. So good,
so good, it's so good. I've never been. But the
more I researched for this, secondly, and the more I'm
thinking that trip I was thinking of doing to Paris
next year, might have to do a side expedition into Belgium,
(13:48):
because of course it's right there.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
It's right Sociality twenty yea by train, you know, you
can drive it.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
It's a lot longer to drive.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
We drove it last last summer because we had our
nanny from Indiana, where we were previously, and she's like,
I really wanted we took her to Belgium for the
summer and she really only wanted to see the Eiffel Towers.
So we drove to Paris and it's actually a four
hour drive, it shows to a one hour twenty.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Okay, so definitely something to consider now. Of course, the
other you've heard us mention Flanders several times, and for
many people that immediately sums up memories of wartime and
battle sites and cemeteries. And I'm mindful of the fact
that we're doing this interview on our Mistice Day, which
is the daymarking the signing of the armistice that ended
World War One this day in nineteen eighteen. So before
(14:34):
we talk about the battle sites, I thought, let's just
take a moment to reflect on that fact and to
remember the millions and millions of lives that were lost
in this part of.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
The world between the two World Wars.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
And a beautiful way to do that is to listen
to the famous poem by John McCrae called in Flanders Fields,
and we're playing you a version here, read by the
late Sir John Gilbert.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
In Flanders Fields, the poppies blow between the crosses row
on row that mark our place, and in the sky
the larks still bravely singing fly scarce heard amid the
guns below. We are the dead. Short days ago we lived,
(15:15):
felt dawn, saw sunset glow. Loved and were loved, And
now we lie in Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel
with the foe to you from failing hands. We throw
the torch be yours to hold it high. If he
(15:36):
break faith with us who die, we shall not sleep.
Though poppies grow in Flanders fields.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
That boy still gives me goosebumps, all these years after
he left us. The poem, of course, written by Canadian
John McCrae, read there by the late said John gilgurd Lean.
I mean, obviously many many sights of huge battles of
both World War One and World War too.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
But not just the World Wars.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
There's another very significant battle further back in history that
has its sights in Belgium.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
At the time.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
But Waterloo is where Napoleon was famously defeated. And we
visited the battlefield and the museum that accompanies it with
the kids when they were quite young, and we visited
even when they were older, and they absolutely were intrigued
by it. It was really didactic and interesting for them
to see to experience part of his street. I mean,
(16:29):
they've very well traveled children, and they've seen lots of
historical monuments. But it was still very interesting for them
to see.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
So if you are going with your.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
Kids, I would suggest that you that you do that
and it's a day trip from Brussels and if you
want to. And sometimes when we travel with the kids,
I'm sure you did. You did the same when your
kids were younger, but tried to find exciting things that
are not travel like museums and you know, but there's
a great water park and amusement park very close through
that battlefield, so we sometimes do both.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
And they've got.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
The most amazing zoo actually in Belgium called Parids. It's
the most beautiful zoo in all of Belgium. And I'm
not a zoo person, but this particular one is done
so fantastically. We've been a few times and it's just
really something to put on the on the list of
(17:20):
things to see and do, especially if you're going with children.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Absolutely, I mean that's a yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
There's only so much that that children can take of
monuments and battle sites and that before they lose focus.
So that's a great idea to distract them. David calling
and asking is the atomium still there in Brussels? That's
ye's very futuristic sort of balls hanging on spikes. It
looks a little bit like a jump jack tell us
more exactly.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
So it was, Yeah, it still is there and right
next to it actually, So what you can do. You
can get a ticket for both the Atomium and Mini Europe,
which is very interesting. So it's a you can it's
basically kind of a walking maze of of Europe and
all the different side that you see in Europe. And
it's a in a venue just next door. It's outside,
(18:04):
and so if you go to the Automya you can
do Mini Europe.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
As well, okay, And it's just outside of Brussels.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
You can take the Metro, you can take a taxi,
you can take the bus.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
So for those who have no idea what that is,
it's look, it's very hard to describe. It's a silver,
very modern looking building. My producers giving me the official
description is that it is a landmark modernist building constructed
as the centerpiece of the nineteen fifty eight Brussels World's Fair.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
Sort of enormous, but you can actually you can see
beautiful views from inside, okay, So it's not just something
that you look at, but you can have lunches side
you can go inside exactly.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
I'm glad you mentioned and you see it exactly.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
I mean when you leave the airport in Brussels Javantine Airport.
You can actually see it from on the road from
the airport, but it is a little bit away outside
of the city.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Okay, somebody writing in too say, I can't believe you
haven't mentioned the famous statue of Monnequin. Course, of course
we were going to get there, and okay, so for
those who can't picture it, it's a statue of a
little boy having a wheel and I've ulterinately heard people
describe it as the biggest let down of their trip
and the most exciting thing to see.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
And every you can walk past there.
Speaker 4 (19:10):
So it's just a flag homplas And you can walk
past there any time of the year in it can
be like so rainy and so cold, but there will
be crowds around this little character called mannequin piece. And
what's interesting I find is that depending on what day
of the year it is, he's dressed up, okay and so,
(19:32):
and they've marked you know, for example, they did eighteenth
of July Madiva's birthday a few years ago, a week
he was dressed with South African colors, and so I
think that that's quite interesting. So it depends what's happening
in the world, what's happening on that particular day.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
But he's got a whole wardrobe.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
And apparently you can also visit the museum and see
the different wardrobes that Money and Piece has as well.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Okay I haven't, but I believe you can.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Okay, So if you want to have the absolutely quintessential
Jian tourists experience, and you've you've got to go inside
the automium, You've got to go and visit Money in Peace,
whatever he is wearing that day. You've got to eat
some milfrite with a little side order of chocolate afterwards,
and mayonnaise is with the chips. Of course, you've got
to listen to some Sharque Brel in the bat or
(20:17):
so pick up a Smurfs or Tingin comic on the
way out. Is there anything we've left out, maybe a
lesser known attraction that you'd like to flag as a favorite.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
Well, you know, as I said to you, for for
nature lovers, I like the parts outside of Brussels where
you can you can cycle, where the where you can
do lots of walks where you can visit the abbey's
outside of Brussels, and so instead of just doing the
museum tour of the stellatoa example, visiting an abbey and
you know, you you see a lot of they call
(20:45):
it Trappist beers, so it's like local Trappist monks that
have made it and one of the famous ones, and
you actually find that beer called Maritsu. It's the it's
actually the boarding school that my husband went to, and
they still do tours of.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Of the abbey.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
They it's still run as a boarding school. And I
find it really very beautiful that region. As I said,
going to Antwerp, going to Bruges, those you can do
in day trips, but it is worth spending a night
and just soaking up some of that.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Culture.
Speaker 4 (21:15):
Also summer when you have such long days and you
can be basically strolling the streets and the canals till
ten eleven o'clock at night, so you can, if you're
going in the summertime, really prolong your stay with that.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
I feel like you've taken us there on a guided
tour already. Leander busselbires such a pleasure. First need to
have you back in the country, but thank you so
much for being our guide on one of the world
this afternoon.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
You've done a fabulous job. It's an absolute pleasure.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
Thank you for having me and for thinking about me
today to talk you through this experience.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
It's lovely to see you again and all the best
for the settling back into life in Cape done.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
As she takes up her new job, Leah and just
appointed as the business editor for The Africa Reports and
we wish her well in that role. The last thing
to remind you is if you haven't got the way
with all to buy a ticket or the leave to
take a holiday to the you can get to have
a little mini experience right here in Capeton this coming
weekend because it is the annual Taste of Belgium festival.
It's happening at the Ambassador's residence in Newland's this weekend
(22:10):
and it is an opportunity to enjoy some of the
dishes Lean's mentioned. I know there will be Mulfret, they'll
be Carder Nard, there will be chocolates, of course, there
will be beers for you to taste. There's live music, waffles.
We didn't mention another big delicacy you have to try.
And there's also a wonderful market of artisanal crafts, people
with some kind of connections to the Belgian community who
(22:30):
will be selling their wears, so lots of things to
go and taste. They sent me a sneak taster of
the bisc Off cheesecake. Oh my word, if you are going,
do not miss that stall is all I can say.
Diets be damned, it's worth cheating for that. Just a
heads up that it is on Saturday. Gates open at
ten o'clock and we advise you to go early because it.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Gets very, very busy. We know this from previous years.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Entrance is free. You can park at a Fernwood estate
or at the Stone Cottages near Kirstenbosch, and a free
shuttle service that will drop you right at the gate
to go and enjoy the event and of course take
you back to your car at the end. So do
you go and enjoy taste of Belgium this coming Saturday.
Join the conversation.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
This is Cape Talk.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
It is time to wander the world, and today we
are doing some armchair travel to Belgium, and our guide
on this journey is going to be a very familiar
voice to you. My former colleague, Leander Basselpierre, recently returned
to South Africa. She's just been appointed business editor for
the Africa Report. Congratulations Leanne, and welcome home. It's great
to see you back on SASIL.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Thank you so much. Pepa.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
It's really great to be back and to be back
on Cape Talk. I've been listening for the past couple
of months and it just feels like so warm and fuzzy,
all the familiar voices, and I'm very happy.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
To be back.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Well, we're so happy to have you with us today.
Because the minute I saw Taste of Belgium was happening
this weekend, I said to my producer, we need to
talk about travel to Belgium and we are going to
tell you all about Taste of Belgium at the end
of the interview. But then I said, we know exactly
who we need to get in as a guest for
this segment, because the clue is in her surname.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Leanne.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
You married to the Belgian national and your boys are
Belgian South African citizens, so you spend quite a bit
of time though, don't you.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
We do spend lots of time.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
So for the past twenty years, even before we started
having kids, we've spent our summers there, and thanks to
global warming, the summers are becoming hot and hot. I
remember first going to Belgium about twenty years ago in
the summer and I was like, this is not summer.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
It is raining. It doesn't count all the time.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
And they say this in Belgium, they said, if you
especially about Brussels, the capital, they say, if it's not raining,
it's either just rained or.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
It's about to rain.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
And I think in recent years we have to kind
of relook that because it's not been my experience the
last few summers. I feel like you either get a
hot July or hot August, but not both, but you
get some hot weather which has been quite nice. And
so our summers are primarily spent in the Ardenne region,
which is a very beautiful part of Belgium, and I
(01:48):
think often overlooked for travelers outside of Europe. So European
travelers they will go to that region. They love hiking
and on the Merged River, there's so much to do.
Something that I like to do is doing cycling along
the river. And you've got camp sites that you've got
peppered across the river, and you've also got the abbey's
(02:08):
where you still have the microbreweries and you have some
monks that are still producing that b and so you
can visit the abbey, you can have a camping trip,
you can get some exercise with the cycling, and it's
quite a robust, active vacation that you can have. So
that's what we spend a lot of our summer doing.
My boys then spend another ten days at Scout camp
(02:30):
and that's actually taken us across Belgium because it's especially
when they're in the younger ages, so the cub Scouts,
they will be in Bruges or in Hence or in
other small towns in Belgium, and that's got in us
to travel.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Actually, So when we've gone.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
To Bruges, which is really a mussy little town it is,
they say, you know, it's got the little canals that
you have in Amsterdam, so taking little boats and doing
tours of the canal. Of course, there's chocolate to be
eats and lots of lace. Actually, that's what Bruges is
very well known. Kent is another small town like that,
but it's got.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
A more students feel. So if you.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
Maybe travel on a budget, Hint is somewhere that you
could get very expensive things but also very cheap options
in terms of accommodation, in terms of things to do,
in terms of sights.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
But of course.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
Belgium is known for its chocolates, it's beer, and it's
tinton and those are the things that you will see
in all the different parts of Belgium that you go to.
Even though it's a country that is very small country,
but you have three distinct languages in the country. You
have very different cultures also because you'll see in the
(03:40):
Wallonia region, which is the French speaking region, which is
in the arden.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
That I was speaking about earlier.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
You will have, as I said, it's very beautiful in nature,
but it's French speaking and very different, whereas in the
Flemish speaking which is the language that's very close to
Dutch and even very similar to Afrikaans. It's funny because
my father's Afrikaans, my father in law and my father
in law speaks Flemish pactice.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
And they understand each other and they understand. So yes,
is that similar? Okay?
Speaker 4 (04:09):
Even though you sometimes think can I understand? You know,
you can understand better than what you can actually speak.
But definitely written Flemish you can understand.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
To read, Okay.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
So Flemish French is the third one German or Germany.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
It's a very very small percentage in the east of
the country and mostly in rural, rural parts of Belgium,
but it is, it is a population, is the third
official language.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Now let's talk about getting there the basics. Can you
flyind direct from Cape Toon to Brussels or does one
have to go to a via via somewhere else in Europe?
Speaker 4 (04:38):
There are sometimes seasonal flights between South Africa and Belgium
because there is a very huge population of Belgians in
South Africa. Acly okay, I mean some years ago. The
figure that I had was something like twenty six thousand
Belgians at the time, and it's mainly Belgians that had
left Congo and then had come you know, they were
(05:00):
to African to go back to Belgium. And you know,
South Africa was a good common ground, okay to come.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
To that's interesting.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Hence the appeal of the Taste of Belgium event happening
at the Residents this weekend, so you.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
Feel exactly exactly, and of course the fantastic beer that
you get.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
In all the other treats.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
So Belgium music country, as I said, of beer, and
they are one thousand, five hundred different beers that you
should have. So of course you can go to the
Stellar Artois Museum and have the stellar Atois experience, which
I think most people, if they know Belgian beer, they
think of Stellatore, but actually Belgium is really well known
for its microbreweries and its specialty beers. My favorite I'm
(05:41):
not about. I'm not really a beer drink, but I
love a beer called Crick and it's a it's a
cherry beer and it's just delicious.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
I was going to say, I associate fruit beers with Belgium,
and I've never encountered the concept before going to a
Belgian event where somebody fell and they gave me I
think a pair favorite beer, yes, and so oft Is.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
I mean, you can't have too many because it's just
very heavy, but it is delicious and you know you think,
oh it's sweet and it's not going to do.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Anything that it goes to your head at some point
famous last words.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
In fact, some beers you know, have a such a
high alcohol content like twenty seven twenty eight percent that.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
You think, oh, it's just a couple of beers that
I'm drinking, and then you know it very quickly can
go to your head. Okay, so you're not going to
drive after those.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
On that note, public transport, if you're visiting as an
outsider without a car, is there public transport really available?
Speaker 2 (06:32):
How do people get around?
Speaker 4 (06:33):
I think public transport is readily available, but Brussels actually
I find competes to other European cities. People have cars
and people get around with their cause. Even though public
transport is very readily available in the capital, you can
get around in tram you can get around in very
expensive Belgian taxis, which are all Mercedes Benz.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
By the way, interestingly uber Is.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
There is the Metro. But as I said, you know,
people do get around mostly in their cars, I find,
which is very different compared to other cities. In fact,
my brother in law works with mobility and so his
project that he's been doing is try to connect the
city a bit better in terms of people coming from
the metro and then linking to the other modes of
(07:19):
public transport in the city, so.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
You're not going to see what you see just across
the road in Amsterdam not far away. Bicycles everywhere you
do see a lot of that.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
I think there's really been a huge drive to do
a lot more on on.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Bicycle, especially in Brussels.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
You also see that in Antwerp, which is the diamond
capital of the world.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
And I must say, if you are going to make
it to Antwerp, they have the world's best.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
Chocolate museum and it is I visited it two years
ago for the first time, and because I've done a
lot of work in coco, having lived in Courtivois, which
is the world's number one coco producer, it was beautiful
in the way that they yes, Belgium is known for chocolate,
but they also assume that chocolate does not come from Belgium.
So they've refined the process of making chocolates, so taking
(08:03):
the raw beans and then the you know, turning it
into into finished products in the end. So they really
take you through that whole journey from being.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
To bar and what that means.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
So it's a beautiful experience, and so I would really
there are others smaller museums in Brussels, in Hent, in Bruges,
because it's such a chocolate you know, obsessed country and
well known for its chocolate, but that particular one I
think is well worth visiting.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
In unverb Okay, thanks for the tip chart. Thank you
writing in to say one of my favorite places to be.
It is so beautiful to ride your bike through Flanders,
is his comments. So there we go echoing that cycling
culture is part of part.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Of the deal over there.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
So you see it more in Flanders because you have
it's flatter, so it's like the Netherlands, and you see
it I think less in Wallonia, Okay.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Now, Leon obviously an old country with a very long
and rich history and lots of medieval sites and I
think three thousand castles.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Somebody told me exactly. It's that it's the country in
the world with.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
The highest number of castles, highest density of castles, and
so I find that very interesting because every small little
town has their little castle and their medieval castle, and
actually once a year the owners of the private owners
of those castles, they actually have to make the property
available for the public to seek, so it would be
(09:19):
on the equivalent of Heritage Day where they have to
make this publicly open.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
It's part of owning that and part of the.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Heritine, so it's not lost to the public even though
it's in private hands.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
That's exactly exactly, Okay.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Just for anybody who's coming in midway to this conversation,
you recognize the voice, of course, it belongs to Leander Bassampierre,
previously part of the Cape Talk team and just returned
to South Africa after many years traveling the world. She
is married to a Belgian national. Her children are South
African Belgian citizens and they travel obviously very often to
Belgium to see friends and family and to visit homes.
(09:54):
So she's had a lot of experience of going there
as a South African visitor on a South African paspital,
although must probably by now a Belgian passport.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
No, no, not only eighteen years married and still no
Belgian passport. But I have residents for Belgium, so it
is easy for me to travel. Okay, So you know, no,
I don't have to get a visa, but I do
have a residence card, so I can travel very easily
in and out of the country. Of course, Belgium is
in the Shngen country, so if you have a Shangen visa,
you can easily enter Belgium on that visa. If you
(10:24):
are applying for a Shangen visa, then you have and
Belgium is your first job.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
You have to go to the Belgian embassy. Okay, good
to apply.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
For at the embassy itself.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
No, they're the different processes that you have now. But
I think you know it's there are very many options
of going to Belgium. I said earlier that you know,
seasonally they sometimes have direct flights between Belgium and South Africa,
but all the big companies that fly into into Cape
Town they have flights. So we are going in a
(10:54):
month's time and we're taking Turkish airlines by Istamachol. I
found that that seemed to be the shortest leg over
four especially when you're traveling with kids. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
In factor, yeah, and the cost of flights Europing.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
What it is exactly exactly, and so you know that
it depends when you buy. If you buying forty five
days minimum in advance, and all these great you know
banking apps now that you can buy it directly through
the bank and get the discounts. I'm taking advantage of
that because they really are very interesting and I'm not
being paid to say that. But there are many options now,
(11:27):
I think, and that's what's great for South Africans that
you don't have to think, oh, con travel because everything
is so expensively.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Four thousand return ticket kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
You can if you do your homework, find something exactly,
a little bit exactly.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
So we paid in the region of twelve thousand ran
for our flights for the end of the year, which
we obviously bought in advance and with you know points
and with and discounts, et cetera.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
But that is reasonable. It's very especially when you are
a family of five, so.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
You considerma gosh, I can't have older kids to travel
with now. I can't imagine to get in the young days. Yeah,
I want to pause for a second and and talk
about some of these sort of historical sites to visit.
And obviously Brussels being the capital, I know they've got
the famous square that is one of the most famous
the ground.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
Plus I think it's at com plus it's beautiful and
every second year they have what they call tappy de fleur,
so it's a carpet of flowers and it's so beautiful,
and so if you are planning a trip to Belgium
to try to do it around that time, it is
just incredible to see really beautiful. The square itself is
(12:28):
very interesting because you have all these gilded buildings around
you know from the former different trades that people had,
so you have the tailor's guild, and you have all
these the banking guild, and you have all these different buildings.
Belgium is also Brussels specifically is also known for its
Art Nouveau buildings, and so you can do a walking
tours that takes you around the square and gives you
(12:51):
very interesting perspective of what you see, so you're not
just going okay, com plus, okay.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
What's next, beautiful bullding, but what is it exactly? And
then around.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
So there are lots of restaurants obviously on the square,
like any of the squaes in Europe that they so expensive.
So I would suggest going you know, two or three
streets away and then finding the very traditional Brassri where
you have Mulfritz, which is the muscles that you absolutely
have to have. And fries and I must say, after
twenty years, I do have my fries with mayonnaise and
(13:23):
it's delicious.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
You finally knuckle down and given up on the tomato source.
I love it. Molfeet I know, one of the dishes
on the menu at the Taste of Belgium event this
coming weekend, by the way, So if you've never had it,
here's your opportunity to go and try something different. So good,
so good, it's so good. I've never been. But the
more I researched for this, secondly, and the more I'm
thinking that trip I was thinking of doing to Paris
next year, might have to do a side expedition into Belgium,
(13:48):
because of course it's right there.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
It's right Sociality twenty yea by train, you know, you
can drive it.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
It's a lot longer to drive.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
We drove it last last summer because we had our
nanny from Indiana, where we were previously, and she's like,
I really wanted we took her to Belgium for the
summer and she really only wanted to see the Eiffel Towers.
So we drove to Paris and it's actually a four
hour drive, it shows to a one hour twenty.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Okay, so definitely something to consider now. Of course, the
other you've heard us mention Flanders several times, and for
many people that immediately sums up memories of wartime and
battle sites and cemeteries. And I'm mindful of the fact
that we're doing this interview on our Mistice Day, which
is the daymarking the signing of the armistice that ended
World War One this day in nineteen eighteen. So before
(14:34):
we talk about the battle sites, I thought, let's just
take a moment to reflect on that fact and to
remember the millions and millions of lives that were lost
in this part of.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
The world between the two World Wars.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
And a beautiful way to do that is to listen
to the famous poem by John McCrae called in Flanders Fields,
and we're playing you a version here, read by the
late Sir John Gilbert.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
In Flanders Fields, the poppies blow between the crosses row
on row that mark our place, and in the sky
the larks still bravely singing fly scarce heard amid the
guns below. We are the dead. Short days ago we lived,
(15:15):
felt dawn, saw sunset glow. Loved and were loved, And
now we lie in Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel
with the foe to you from failing hands. We throw
the torch be yours to hold it high. If he
(15:36):
break faith with us who die, we shall not sleep.
Though poppies grow in Flanders fields.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
That boy still gives me goosebumps, all these years after
he left us. The poem, of course, written by Canadian
John McCrae, read there by the late said John gilgurd Lean.
I mean, obviously many many sights of huge battles of
both World War One and World War too.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
But not just the World Wars.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
There's another very significant battle further back in history that
has its sights in Belgium.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
At the time.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
But Waterloo is where Napoleon was famously defeated. And we
visited the battlefield and the museum that accompanies it with
the kids when they were quite young, and we visited
even when they were older, and they absolutely were intrigued
by it. It was really didactic and interesting for them
to see to experience part of his street. I mean,
(16:29):
they've very well traveled children, and they've seen lots of
historical monuments. But it was still very interesting for them
to see.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
So if you are going with your.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
Kids, I would suggest that you that you do that
and it's a day trip from Brussels and if you
want to. And sometimes when we travel with the kids,
I'm sure you did. You did the same when your
kids were younger, but tried to find exciting things that
are not travel like museums and you know, but there's
a great water park and amusement park very close through
that battlefield, so we sometimes do both.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
And they've got.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
The most amazing zoo actually in Belgium called Parids. It's
the most beautiful zoo in all of Belgium. And I'm
not a zoo person, but this particular one is done
so fantastically. We've been a few times and it's just
really something to put on the on the list of
(17:20):
things to see and do, especially if you're going with children.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Absolutely, I mean that's a yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
There's only so much that that children can take of
monuments and battle sites and that before they lose focus.
So that's a great idea to distract them. David calling
and asking is the atomium still there in Brussels? That's
ye's very futuristic sort of balls hanging on spikes. It
looks a little bit like a jump jack tell us
more exactly.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
So it was, Yeah, it still is there and right
next to it actually, So what you can do. You
can get a ticket for both the Atomium and Mini Europe,
which is very interesting. So it's a you can it's
basically kind of a walking maze of of Europe and
all the different side that you see in Europe. And
it's a in a venue just next door. It's outside,
(18:04):
and so if you go to the Automya you can
do Mini Europe.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
As well, okay, And it's just outside of Brussels.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
You can take the Metro, you can take a taxi,
you can take the bus.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
So for those who have no idea what that is,
it's look, it's very hard to describe. It's a silver,
very modern looking building. My producers giving me the official
description is that it is a landmark modernist building constructed
as the centerpiece of the nineteen fifty eight Brussels World's Fair.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
Sort of enormous, but you can actually you can see
beautiful views from inside, okay, So it's not just something
that you look at, but you can have lunches side
you can go inside exactly.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
I'm glad you mentioned and you see it exactly.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
I mean when you leave the airport in Brussels Javantine Airport.
You can actually see it from on the road from
the airport, but it is a little bit away outside
of the city.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Okay, somebody writing in too say, I can't believe you
haven't mentioned the famous statue of Monnequin. Course, of course
we were going to get there, and okay, so for
those who can't picture it, it's a statue of a
little boy having a wheel and I've ulterinately heard people
describe it as the biggest let down of their trip
and the most exciting thing to see.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
And every you can walk past there.
Speaker 4 (19:10):
So it's just a flag homplas And you can walk
past there any time of the year in it can
be like so rainy and so cold, but there will
be crowds around this little character called mannequin piece. And
what's interesting I find is that depending on what day
of the year it is, he's dressed up, okay and so,
(19:32):
and they've marked you know, for example, they did eighteenth
of July Madiva's birthday a few years ago, a week
he was dressed with South African colors, and so I
think that that's quite interesting. So it depends what's happening
in the world, what's happening on that particular day.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
But he's got a whole wardrobe.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
And apparently you can also visit the museum and see
the different wardrobes that Money and Piece has as well.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Okay I haven't, but I believe you can.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Okay, So if you want to have the absolutely quintessential
Jian tourists experience, and you've you've got to go inside
the automium, You've got to go and visit Money in Peace,
whatever he is wearing that day. You've got to eat
some milfrite with a little side order of chocolate afterwards,
and mayonnaise is with the chips. Of course, you've got
to listen to some Sharque Brel in the bat or
(20:17):
so pick up a Smurfs or Tingin comic on the
way out. Is there anything we've left out, maybe a
lesser known attraction that you'd like to flag as a favorite.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
Well, you know, as I said to you, for for
nature lovers, I like the parts outside of Brussels where
you can you can cycle, where the where you can
do lots of walks where you can visit the abbey's
outside of Brussels, and so instead of just doing the
museum tour of the stellatoa example, visiting an abbey and
you know, you you see a lot of they call
(20:45):
it Trappist beers, so it's like local Trappist monks that
have made it and one of the famous ones, and
you actually find that beer called Maritsu. It's the it's
actually the boarding school that my husband went to, and
they still do tours of.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Of the abbey.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
They it's still run as a boarding school. And I
find it really very beautiful that region. As I said,
going to Antwerp, going to Bruges, those you can do
in day trips, but it is worth spending a night
and just soaking up some of that.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Culture.
Speaker 4 (21:15):
Also summer when you have such long days and you
can be basically strolling the streets and the canals till
ten eleven o'clock at night, so you can, if you're
going in the summertime, really prolong your stay with that.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
I feel like you've taken us there on a guided
tour already. Leander busselbires such a pleasure. First need to
have you back in the country, but thank you so
much for being our guide on one of the world
this afternoon.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
You've done a fabulous job. It's an absolute pleasure.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
Thank you for having me and for thinking about me
today to talk you through this experience.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
It's lovely to see you again and all the best
for the settling back into life in Cape done.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
As she takes up her new job, Leah and just
appointed as the business editor for The Africa Reports and
we wish her well in that role. The last thing
to remind you is if you haven't got the way
with all to buy a ticket or the leave to
take a holiday to the you can get to have
a little mini experience right here in Capeton this coming
weekend because it is the annual Taste of Belgium festival.
It's happening at the Ambassador's residence in Newland's this weekend
(22:10):
and it is an opportunity to enjoy some of the
dishes Lean's mentioned. I know there will be Mulfret, they'll
be Carder Nard, there will be chocolates, of course, there
will be beers for you to taste. There's live music, waffles.
We didn't mention another big delicacy you have to try.
And there's also a wonderful market of artisanal crafts, people
with some kind of connections to the Belgian community who
(22:30):
will be selling their wears, so lots of things to
go and taste. They sent me a sneak taster of
the bisc Off cheesecake. Oh my word, if you are going,
do not miss that stall is all I can say.
Diets be damned, it's worth cheating for that. Just a
heads up that it is on Saturday. Gates open at
ten o'clock and we advise you to go early because it.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Gets very, very busy. We know this from previous years.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Entrance is free. You can park at a Fernwood estate
or at the Stone Cottages near Kirstenbosch, and a free
shuttle service that will drop you right at the gate
to go and enjoy the event and of course take
you back to your car at the end. So do
you go and enjoy taste of Belgium this coming Saturday.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Are You A Charlotte?
In 1997, actress Kristin Davis’ life was forever changed when she took on the role of Charlotte York in Sex and the City. As we watched Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte navigate relationships in NYC, the show helped push once unacceptable conversation topics out of the shadows and altered the narrative around women and sex. We all saw ourselves in them as they searched for fulfillment in life, sex and friendships. Now, Kristin Davis wants to connect with you, the fans, and share untold stories and all the behind the scenes. Together, with Kristin and special guests, what will begin with Sex and the City will evolve into talks about themes that are still so relevant today. "Are you a Charlotte?" is much more than just rewatching this beloved show, it brings the past and the present together as we talk with heart, humor and of course some optimism.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.