Truly only in Belgium.

The Flemish and Walloon tourist agencies are both fudging official maps by including bits that don’t officially belong to their region and denying the existence of the other. Toerisme Vlaanderen insists that its map, featuring Brussels as just another Flemish city and Wallonia as a neighbouring country labelled Belgium, is meant for simplicity, so tourists can quickly see which cities are worth visiting. Meanwhile, Wallonia’s tourist office, OPT, published a map placing Voeren, an officially Dutch-speaking municipality north of Liège, in Wallonia, and featuring a non-existent corridor connecting the region to Brussels, equally marked as belonging to the region.

Take that!

Infamous cream pie thrower, or entarteur, Noël Godin has announced his return from retirement. Godin started tossing cream pies at highprofile people including Microsoft’s Bill Gates, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, French novelist Marguerite Duras and choreographer Maurice Béjart. The Brussels actor has lined up French UMP politicians and the boss of Radio France as among his next targets.

Take that, taxman.

The cost of golf club membership is listed as tax deductible, according to tax expert Jef Wellens. The Belgian situation was highlighted when a judge in The Netherlands ruled in favour of a woman who was hounded by local tax authorities for trying to deduct her club membership from taxes.

Middle name is Lona.

A Limbourg family have named their son Barça in honour of the Spanish football club FC Barcelona. Wesley Beeckman, 23, and Anneke Maes, 24, picked the name after hearing a chant at a game: “tinc un nom que el sap tothom, Barça, Barça, Barça” — I have a name that everyone knows, Barça, Barça, Barça.

It's not a real carpet.

Brussels police arrested two inebriated men who messed up the flower carpet on the Grand’Place by running through it on
Saturday, August 14. One of the local men was pretending to swim through the flowers when he was caught. The two were released without charges, but will be billed for the damages.