"In the footsteps (or wagon ruts) of Victor Hugo" Top 5 Page for this destination Liège by Nemorino

Liège Travel Guide: 317 reviews and 543 photos

Victor Hugo traveled to Liège in a "diligence"

Victor Hugo’s first visit to Liège was in 1840, when he was thirty-eight years old. He was travelling by stagecoach, known in French as a diligence, and was on his way from Paris to the Rhine Valley in Germany. In his book Le Rhin he described his approach to Liège from the Southwest, coming down the valley of the Meuse River:

But then evening comes, the wind dies down, the meadows, bushes and trees are silent, you can hear nothing but the sound of the water. The insides of the houses are lit dimly; objects disappear like smoke. In the stagecoach the travelers yawn as though it were a yawning contest, saying: We will be in Liège in an hour. At that moment that the landscape suddenly takes on an extraordinary appearance. There, in the forests at the foot of the brown, fuzzy hills to the west, two round eyes of fire burst and blaze like the eyes of a tiger. Here, beside the road, a terrifying flame shoots up eighty feet high in the landscape, assaulting the rocks, forests and ravines with sinister illuminations. Further on, at the entrance to this valley hidden in the shadows, a huge mouth full of embers opens and shuts brusquely, releasing horrible hiccups and a tongue of flame.

These are the factories that are lighting up.

Beyond the town called Petite-Flemalle, the scene becomes indescribable and truly magnificent. The whole valley seems to be studded with erupting craters. Some of them disgorge turbulent clouds of scarlet sparkling steam from behind the bushes; others dismally outline the black silhouette of the villages against a red background. In other places flames appear through the gaps in a group of buildings. One would think an enemy army has just crossed the country and ransacked twenty villages, leaving them in the gloomy night in various stages of destruction, some burned to the ground, some giving off smoke, some still in flames.

This warlike spectacle was actually produced by peace. This horrifying appearance of appalling devastation was made by industry. You are simply looking at the blast furnaces of Mr. Cockerill.

A fierce and violent noise arises out of this chaos of workers. I had the curiosity to get out of the stagecoach and approach one of these disturbing and mysterious places. There, I truly admired the industry. It is a beautiful and prodigious spectacle, which at night seems to enhance the solemn sadness of the hour with a touch of the supernatural. The wheels, saws, furnaces, rolling mills, cylinders, pendulums, all those monsters of copper, tin and brass that we call machines and whose steam is alive with a frightening and terrible roar, hissing, whistling, moaning, protesting, sniffing, barking, yelping, tearing the bronze, twisting the iron, chewing the granite, and at times, surrounded and harassed by smoky black workers, screaming with pain in the ardent atmosphere of the factory, like hydras and dragons tormented by demons in hell.

(From Letter VII of Le Rhin by Victor Hugo, my translation.)

I have translated some more of Victor Hugo’s observations from the year 1840 for my tips on the Théâtre Royal de Liège, the Palace of the Prince Bishops and the Museum of Public Transport, telling of Hugo’s travels by stagecoach.

From the same book I have also translated a few passages for two of the tips on my Bacharach page: Victor Hugo on the Rhine and his encounter with three young girls in the tip Fürstenberg and Falkenburg.

The Meuse River in Liège

This part of Belgium, the French-speaking Wallonia, was the rich half of the country in the nineteenth century, in fact for decades it was the leading industrial region of continental Europe.

French was Belgium’s only official language at that time and the prosperous French-speaking Walloons tended to look down their noses at their poor Dutch-speaking compatriots in Flanders, just a short stagecoach ride to the north.

Now, in the twenty-first century, the situation has reversed. Flanders is now booming with innovative high-tech industries and the French-speaking Wallonia has fallen far behind. The big political issue in Belgium these days is whether or not to divide the country, as some Flemish politicians would like to do, so that Flanders would no longer have to subsidize the poor once-proud Wallonians.

John Cockerill, mentioned by Victor Hugo as “Mr. Cockerill”, turns out to have been a British industrialist (born 1790, died 1840) who spent most of his adult life in Belgium, where he developed a vast complex of mines and factories near Liège. Since John Cockerill’s death, his company has been through numerous crises and mergers. It is now part of the global ArcelorMittal steel company, which still (or again) has factories in the Liège region employing nearly three thousand people.

Liège-Guillemins railway station

I went to Liège a hundred and seventy-one years after Victor Hugo’s first visit. I came on a TGV train from Cologne via Aachen and arrived at the new Liège-Guillemins high-speed train station, which was designed for the city by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava and inaugurated in September 2009.

The city’s tourist office describes this new station as a “monumental, organic, aerial and transparent structure” which has “transformed the urban skyline and become a symbol of the city’s renewal.” (I’ll give you my take on it in my first transportation tip aka review.)

As an experiment I have linked all my Liège tips together, so in case you would like to read them in my order you can start here with my first Transportation tip and then simply click on the link at the bottom of each tip.

Last visit to Liège: Jun 2011
Intro Updated Nov 20, 2011
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Reviews (33)

1. Opera House construction site, 2011 - Liège

Théâtre Royal de Liège Things to Do (14)

The Royal Theater, home of the Royal Opera of the Wallonia, is currently (as of 2011) being reconstructed and enlarged.... more travel advice

1. Opera tent from Place du Congrès - Liège

Palais Opéra de Liège Things to Do (14)

While the opera house is being rebuilt, the Royal Opera of Wallonia is performing in the “Opera Palace”, which is... more travel advice

Foyer of the opera tent Things to Do (14)

The opera tent is actually a group of tents, of which the front ones serve as a roomy and elegant foyer. On my Kassel... more travel advice

Salomé in the opera tent Things to Do (14)

The opera I saw in Liège was Salomé by Richard Strauss, but sung this time in French, not in the original German. This... more travel advice

Transportation (11)
See All Gare des Guillemins
Favorites (2)
See All The Meuse River
Local Customs (1)
Typical brick houses

Comments (23)

Martinewezel Mar 29, 2012 at 12:11 AM Report Abuse

The station of Liège Guillemins will never get stuffy, that's true. It would never get dirty neither. However... last time I was there, people were cleaning the accesible parts. The top was visibly black. I have never been to Mediacité yet. A tip for my next visit!
aussirose Feb 24, 2012 at 3:01 PM Report Abuse

Hey Don. Enjoyed the read here. I like the red building. Nice photo too of the alley way with red building one side and grey the other. Also nice tip about the old brick houses. Great page mate! Hugs, Ann.
lmkluque Jan 3, 2012 at 9:34 AM Report Abuse

Happy New Year Don! I really enjoy your perspective on things. I've a friend living in Liege, but haven't been there myself. Thanks for the views.
kiwi Dec 30, 2011 at 11:23 AM Report Abuse

Oh wow, seeing the old buildings is amazing, where I live there is nothing so old. I often wondered what Europeans did to expand on a building yet keep the old ones. Happy New Year Don, hope 2012 is happy for you :-)
Trekki Dec 13, 2011 at 10:08 PM Report Abuse

[Thank you for having started the linking thing! Makes page reading so easy!!] It is a strange feeling to read about Liege now one day after the horrible attack! But I enjoyed your page, especially the photos of this really nice looking train station and your special angle photos. Do you have a new camera? Oh and I also like that you start with the transports & trains, it is like your special trademark :-) Love your off path tips, especially about Angleur and its castle town hall with moat. Cute!
balhannah Dec 5, 2011 at 5:48 AM Report Abuse

Interesting reading about Victor Hugo! I like the Railway station, but I can understand the local point of view, always different when you live there! I love the Hotel D'ville's, they are always such nice, interesting buildings, and I thought the médiacité was extra modern!
yumyum Dec 5, 2011 at 2:27 AM Report Abuse

Wow, Liège looks very interesting! Like the look of the railway station. As you may know in Zurich the Stadelhofen station is also by Calatrava. And they even have a tram museum - even better! As you said Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe is very unpleasant in cold weather :-( I've never travelled on a Thalys train yet. I prefer the ICE because one doesn't need seat reservations :-)
richiecdisc Nov 25, 2011 at 9:44 PM Report Abuse

I thought VT's photo scroll for each tip was the greatest innovation to hit the site ever but your linking of tips has become my new favorite and just might fetch me from retirement. Pure genius. Oh, and Liege looks rather nice too. ;)
Dabs Nov 21, 2011 at 8:40 PM Report Abuse

Agree with Sarah and Mirjam, the links to the tips is an excellent idea! We had to pass on Liege on our last trip, someday I will have to visit the home of the Liege waffle :-)
toonsarah Nov 21, 2011 at 6:04 AM Report Abuse

Well I really like your experiment of linking the tips - and may pinch the idea myself ;-)
I love the look of the new station so I hope it succeeds and doesn't become a white elephant for the city. And like you at the museum, I have learned a lot today about life in this corner of Europe - and also about Victor Hugo, grams (and Gramme), and much more besides :-)