Documenting our move

Since we will be moving to Leuven in the spring, I started documenting our move. Meaning that I've been trying to find out more about the history of our house and the lot it was build on. I've been looking at postcards from Leuven in 1914-1918. There are plenty of postcards of the damage caused by the invasion of the German army in 1914, but I haven't found any of our street yet.

This is a picture from the Diestsestraat in ruins. 1915:


A lot of houses in our street were severely damaged too, but it was not one of the central disaster eras. According to our architect our house probably dates from the late 1930s or early 1940s. I'm pretty sure it wasn't one of the many houses being rebuild after the First World War, since most of these have a special remembrance stone built in their facade. The previous house on the lot may have been destroyed (as was the villa a couple of houses down the block) and not rebuild for a decennium or more. I'm planning to go to the city archive to find out more about this. But this'll have to wait till after the holidays.

Jacqueline Harpman

I am reading 'Moi qui n'ai pas connu les hommes' by the Brussels writer Jacqueline Harpman (1940). She's a psychoanalyst and her books are surrealist, bizarre and absolutely fascinating. If I remember correctly, most of her books are written in the style of a kind of 'monologue intérieur'. This one's about a young girl whose name, age and appearances are unknown to both herself and the reader. Together with forty other women she's locked up in a cave without windows. They have no idea how they got there and what the purpose of their imprisonment might be.

I've also read 'Orlanda' and 'La plage d'Ostende' by the same author. So far, the latter is definitely my favourite.