
So, we gave up and walked over to the basilique for a bit of sightseeing instead. Its foundation stone laid by the “thoroughly bad” King Leopold II in 1905, the National Basilica of the Sacred-Heart of Koekelberg

But the first thing we noticed on our way in was a restaurant in the basement, where live music was echoing. It wasn’t church hymns but rather hits from the 40s and 50s, sung by a couple of guys who have clearly been doing the lounge circuit since at least then. We walked in, realised it was smoke-free and sat down.
It was a staggeringly Belgian moment, with songs in Flemish and French, and both languages could be heard coming from the tables around us. This older crowd were clearly Belgians of the era before the deteriorating linguistic divide of the past few decades. Not that such people are impossible to find these days, of course, but when you look at the media and schools and so on, the two groups seem as different as any two European nations. The audience here predated that.


In any case, the event was about far more than the beer. It was easily the best afternoon of lounge singing I’ve ever experienced in a consecrated location.