Blancs Moussis

As coming back from dried up African country, I wanted to see wet green with rain dew. Maybe life needs water and green. So I decided to go to Belgium.

I changed to a local train at Liege and got off at the small station in the mountains. After 30 more minutes bus ride, I was in the village called Stavelot in the forest of Ardenne. The village still had a winter landscape had snow.
There were another reason why I visited the village. I wanted to see a circuit of motor race. Spa-Francorchamps was one of the most traditional circuit with long history in Europe. The 7km length race track which also includes the public road section repeated up and down, and went through the highland of Ardenne.

In March, Spa Francorchamp Circuit was obviously off season. I stepped into the course from main stand area. And I saw the first hill climb section. It's like a wall. Formula 1 machines climbed up the steep slope called "Eau rouge" in almost 300km/h speed. I remembered TV image and walked on the race track with making sure each single corner. I must be the F1 pilot.
I had walked 6km after all and got to the final section. Then a helicopter appeared and hovering above me. They said something to me with the microphone. It meant I could not enter the course.

When I got up next morning, I heard some noise from downstairs. Well, my room was on the second floor of cafe. So I went to downstairs for figure it out. What I saw there was full of customers in a white robe and strange mask with long pointed nose. I felt like I was still in a dream. And they all drunk even it's in the morning.
So I asked them what's going on there. I heard it's a spring carnival called "Blancs Moussis" They passed me a pamphlet. It said "The 501th Blancs Moussis". "My God, it's the 501th carnival" It meant the festival had more than 500 year history.

The woman next to me explained "Well, this is a very traditional carnival with 500 year history. Long time ago, people drunk in the spring carnival. The monks in the monastery also wanted to celebrate the carnival with the folks. But unfortunately, they couldn't drink because they were monk. Then people got the idea that all the people put the white robes and the strange masks to cover the faces. So nobody knew who's a monk.
Finally, all the people could celebrate the carnival. It's at the end of the 15th century. <Blancs Moussis> means white robe" The carnival had quite logical origin, I thought.

My photo looks like a snap shot this time. Any way ... I asked them what was their occupation. Everybody said "Monk" Excellent joke.