Flower Carpet

Once every other year the Grand Place of Brussels is covered in flowers, begonias to be exact.  This display is referred to as the flower carpet.  (If you would like to know more details, you can check out www.flowercarpet.be)

The flowers are put into place on Friday afternoon and are left in place through Sunday evening.  These flowers are not planted, no soil is involved, they are just tightly packed into spaces bordered by turf.  The entire carpet is over 2,000 square meters. There are approximately 300 flowers to every square meter.  My math calculations tell me, there are alot of flowers.


For the best view of the carpet, it is helpful to get some height.  For just two hours a day, the public is allowed to go onto the balcony of the hotel de ville.  This cost us 3 euros per person.  It was a beautiful sight to see the expanse of carpet with the back drop of the guild houses that border the Grand Place.

It was also a good place for a photo op, even though some of us did not appreciate getting up early on a Saturday morning to see this.




The carpet won't be back until August 2012.  Each time the carpet design changes, so this one won't be seen again.

hotel de ville with people on balcony at second floor level