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Wallonia
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Contents
Wallonia [1] is the French-speaking southern part of Belgium. It is wedged between Flanders in the North and France in the South-West, while Luxembourg and Germany share its Eastern border. This region has an immense historical and cultural wealth which is made visible through its buildings, its works of art and its festivals. Every turn of a corner will bring you something new.
[edit] Regions
| Hainaut |
| Liège |
| Luxembourg |
| Namur |
| Walloon Brabant |
As you can see, most of the provinces share their name with the main city (or the nearby country), which makes is a bit complicated. But remember that France has a region called "Flemish Ardennes", and the Netherlands has North-Brabant, all for historical reasons.
[edit] Cities
- Namur - the regional capital
[edit] Understand
Nowadays, Wallonia is one of the three federal regions of Belgium (the other two being Flanders and Brussels). This means that it has its own government, a parliament and separate laws. The capital of Wallonia is Namur, near its geographic center.
Wallonia used to have a very good economy, mostly based on charcoal-industry. After the World Wars the industry didn't renew itself fast enough. Because of that the economy is now lagging behind Flanders.
[edit] Talk
The official languages of Wallonia are both French and German. However German is spoken only in a few cities along the German border. It is very hard to find a German speaker elsewhere in Wallonia outside this region. Outside of cities, Walloon is the native language of many, it is related to French and is spoken throughout the region. Foreign languages are not so widely spoken in Wallonia as in Flanders. Dutch is learnt in schools by everyone but people in Wallonia do not like to speak it in general. It is easier to find young people who can speak English but it can be hard to have a conversation in English with someone who is 40+. Surprisingly, Spanish is the third most spoken foreign language.
At any rate it can be very hard to find tourist and other useful information in English, even in famous tourist locations.
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