Belgium questions

Baarle is a village whose territory is divided into a patchwork of Belgian and Dutch territories. The Belgian part includes 16 exclaves within Dutch territory. The borders of these enclaves, however, do not run straight, they cut houses in half, divide buildings, gardens and shops with borders, marked by white crosses on the ground, that often cut through the middle of buildings and homes. For these properties, the voordeurregel (literally: "front door rule") policy applies: their address lies in the country that contains their front door.

Jan Baptist van Helmont (1580–1644) was a Flemish chemist, physiologist, and physician. He worked during the years just after Paracelsus and the rise of iatrochemistry, and is sometimes considered to be "the founder of pneumatic chemistry". Van Helmont is remembered today largely for his ideas on spontaneous generation, his 5-year tree experiment, and his introduction of the word "gas" (from the Greek word chaos) into the vocabulary of science.

Belgium, the home of pralines, is world-renowned for its chocolates, and a major chocolate manufacturing center. There are around 17.000 Belgians employed in the industry, which results in 172.000 tonnes produced each year.

Brothers Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne are a Belgian filmmaking duo. They write, produce and direct their films together.

Kriek lambic is a style of Belgian beer, made by fermenting lambic with sour Morello cherries. Traditionally "Schaarbeekse krieken" (a rare Belgian Morello variety) from the area around Brussels are used. As the Schaarbeek type cherries have become more difficult to find, some brewers have replaced these (partly or completely) with other varieties of sour cherries, sometimes imported.

Pierre Celis was a Belgian brewer who opened his first brewery in 1966 to revive the wit beer style in his hometown of Hoegaarden. Both German Weißbier and Belgian witbier are termed "white beers" because "wheat" has the same etymological root as "white" in most West Germanic languages.

The brewery claims the glass was designed by the innkeeper Pauwel Kwak in the early 19th century for coachmen. The shape of the glass allowed them to fix the beer to the carriage and avoid spills.

Processional giants and dragons are a set of folkloric manifestations in Belgium and France, Inherited from medieval rites. The Giant is one of the symbols of the region Nord-Pas-de-Calais. Present at regional festivals and events, he represents the northern community.

The cheese is especially known for its strong smell caused by the bacterium Brevibacterium linens. Brevibacterium linens is ubiquitously present on the human skin, where it causes foot odor. The same bacterium is also employed to ferment several cheeses such as Munster, Limburger, Port-du-Salut, Raclette, Livarot, Pont l'Eveque and Năsal.

The largest cities in Belgium: Brussels (1.0 million), Antwerp (466,000), Ghent (235,000) and Charleroi (201,000).