Escape to Pop

With heatwave temperatures reaching their highest peak of well over 35°C just as I was about to return to work, it was all I could do to try and keep up with blogland by reading and commenting on posts from my airconditioned office. 

Returning home on an overheated tram on Tuesday the 1st of July, when the mercury went berserk and climbed to 38°C, spontaneous combustion was imminent. With my sluggish brain struggling just to put my body through the motions, it was clear that making a start with my mini-travelogue wasn't on the cards just yet!

We're now back to much more comfortable temperatures so, without further ado, here's what we have been up to, starting with Sunday the 15th of June: the day we made our escape to Pop.

We'd already experienced a minor heatwave, with a handful of +30° degrees days, just before our departure, so we were glad it had cooled down to the low 20s by the time we waved goodbye to an unsuspecting Bess just after Sunday lunch time.

Poperinge is only an hour and a half's drive from Dove Cottage, however, due to a series of roadworks, both on the motorway and in Poperinge itself, it was nearly 3 pm before we drove through the ornate wrought iron gates which give access to our cottage.

But before I show you around, let's have a look at my outfit! 

I'd picked up the tiered chambray maxi dress from C&A on Friday. We'd only gone in to buy Jos a new pair of trousers, but ... well, I guess I don't have to explain that resistance is futile when a girl serendipitously stumbles upon one of her holy grails ... 

So, the cottage! This was our 14th visit and, as I've been blogging about our September holidays here since 2016, it will be familiar to all of you who've been reading my blog for any amount of time. Nevertheless, our hearts always make a leap of joy when we climb the stairs leading to the compact first floor studio above the owner's car port and walk through its front door. It's a homecoming each and every time!

Until now, we'd only been here in September, so that our mid-June visit did feel a bit weird at first. The hops growing in the the field across the road hadn't reached the top of their poles by a long way yet and there wasn't that unmistakable hint of approaching Autumn that usually lingers over the landscape.

We never tire of the view from the cottage's French window and balcony, across the domain's picturesque lake which is its indisputable focal point, towards the patchwork of fields and the gently undulating Franco-Flemish hills beyond. We are, by the way, only about six kilometers from the French border here!

Inside too, the cottage is an oasis of calm, its minimalist interior the polar opposite of Dove Cottage's maximalist extravaganza. Immediately upon entering one is faced with a cosy two-chair sitting corner, opposite which is a dressing area offering plenty of storage space and including a rail with several wooden hangers, deep shelving which runs all the way under the sloping roof and a couple of handy wicker baskets.

There's a compact kitchen block, coffee and tea making facilities and a SMEG fridge. The kitchen block separates the breakfast nook-with-a-view from a sitting area with sofa, coffee table and television.

At the far end of the cottage is a comfortable box spring bed with two low wooden side tables serving as nightstands. Behind the frosted glass door at the bottom of the bed is the compact yet fully equipped bathroom, with plenty of shelving and a endless supply of super soft towels.

Having reacquainted ourselves with the cottage, we dragged our luggage from the boot of the car and up the stairs - a workout included in the rent - after which we sat down for a restorative cup of coffee accompanied with the chocolates provided by owner Marino.

Then it was time to drive over to Poperinge itself - the cottage is on the outskirts of the town, about two and a half kilometers from the town centre - for a leg-stretching stroll.

Taking pride of place on the Grote Markt (market square) is its town hall. Built of buttery brick and with its decorative arches and stone carvings, it looks considerably older than its years. In fact, it was built in neo-Gothic style as recently as 1911 by the architect who was also responsible for the reconstruction of Ypres after the Great War.

Ah, the Great War! It is never far away in the area which is commonly known as Flanders Fields, where  remnants and reminders of the World War I battlefields are lurking around every corner.

Poperinge's wartime history reads a little different from most Flemish towns as it remained virtually unoccupied during WWI, offering a place where soldiers could escape from the horrors of war.

In 1915, a soldier's club, now known as Talbot House, was opened by British army chaplain Philip Clayton, after which Poperinge - which was nicknamed "Pop" by the British troupes - became the hub for entertainment. Soldiers of every rank could have some carefree fun here and unwind for a while. We visited Talbot House back in 2016, 2021 and 2024.

Directly opposite the town hall is Poperinge's war memorial. The bronze statue depicts a soldier carrying a banner and a rifle, while on smaller pediments are the statues of a boy presenting a palm branch and a girl presenting a garland of flowers.

The memorial records the names of 130 Belgian soldiers who were killed during the Great War, with the lower panels listing the Second World War casualties. More names are to be found on plaques on the wall behind the memorial, and there are two panels containing the names of civilians killed during the Great War (above, right). The plague on the left honours both the French and British soldiers which were killed in defence of the town during the Great War.

Time for a lighter note, which is provided by the sculpture of Master Ghybe: a folkloristic figure dating back to the Middle Ages and the symbol of the competition in the cloth industry between the towns of Poperinge and Ypres.  

Master Ghybe is pretty much the Don Quixote of Poperinge. He sat backwards on a donkey with an 83-pound cobble on a cushion in front of him. He wore pots and pans as his armour and was armed with a ladle and a spit. Along with his followers, who were dressed exactly like him, he walked in processions and parades. The name Ghybe was not chosen at random, it was actually a reference to the three great rival cities: Ghent, Ypres and Bruges. Master Ghybe's donkey represents Flanders, which wasn't considered well governed. The cobble he carried became the symbol of the people of Poperinge, who to this day proudly carry the nickname of "keikoppen" (transl. cobble heads).

The sculpture, which was revealed in 2005, is by local sculptor and ceramist Lucien De Gheus (1927-2013), whose house and workplace - now a museum - we had the pleasure of visiting last September.

The church which is Master Ghybe's backdrop in the photo on the left is St-Bertinus church, Poperinge's main church and at the same time its oldest.  

It is dedicated to Saint Bertinus, who was the abbot of the abbey of Saint-Omer (about 55 kilometers away, in the North of France) in the seventh century. Originally the church was a Romanesque cross church built in 1147, but it was destroyed by arson fire in 1419 by a group of supporters of the Duke of Orleans. 

In 1420, abbot Akkard Trubert commissioned the rebuilding of St-Bertinus church, this time in a Gothic style as a Flemish hall church. This type of church, which is particularly common in Flanders, has a nave and aisles of roughly the same height, creating a spacious, hall-like interior. They often feature a single, large roof covering the entire width of the church.

Of special note are the artistic wood carvings, in particular in the richly sculpted Baroque pulpit which dates from 1710 and originates from the Dominican monastery in Bruges. It is considered one of the most beautiful in Belgium. It was purchased by the church council and transferred here in 1806. During the First World War, the pulpit was safely stored in Paris.

Couleur locale can be found in the hop cones in the rood screen (below, top left).

The church has modern stained glass windows (1980), designed by Arno Brys (°1928), in the main and side choirs. He also created the stunning stained glass window (1970) we admired last year in the assembly hall in the restored Cloth Hall in Ypres.  

Hidden away in a delightfully dilapidated corner of the church is this rather splendid painted wood sculpture dating from the early 18th Century depicting the Entombment of Christ.

After leaving the church, we returned to our car, which we'd parked just around the corner from the Grote Markt. 

But not before stocking up on Mini Magnum ice creams at the Carrefour Express supermarket in the square, which later that evening we enjoyed while sitting on our balcony and watching the world go by.

Or rather, in this case, the wildlife on the lake and the domain's four lawnmowers who, regular as clockwork, always turned up at owner Marino's house next door to the cottage for their evening treat at around 7 pm.

 

That night - and on all subsequent nights - we fell asleep to the chorus of frogs who were having their nightly lakeside rehearsals. 

You are welcome to join me again for episode # 2 in a couple of days!