Another beautiful sunny day! And what better way to relax than at the beach with my little man.
As we made our way down to the beach I noticed a little girl with a bundle of flowers. My initial thought was "Wow, how cool. These kids are decorating their moat with flowers." Several minutes later a family sat next to us and I noticed these children brought flowers too. The kids started digging a hole and created this little stand with the sand to hold their flowers. It was really adorable and the flowers were beautiful.
Oh, one thing I forgot to mention in my previous beach postings are the shovels these kids use to create their sand creations. These shovels aren't your usual plastic little shovels - no way. Take a look at the shovel in this photo... that is after you look at the guy in his bikini. lol! Bikini's are a whole other issue. Why men are only allowed to wear bikinis at public pools is beside me. They say men must wear bikinis for hygiene reasons. I'd love for a native Belgian to explain this to me. lol! Back to the shovels... ;)
These shovels are just mini versions of real shovels. It was pretty cool to see how serious these families take beach equipment. I also didn't see too many sand castles being built. Most of the kids were busy building moats which were really fun once the tide rolled in. Anyway... back to the flowers.
I noticed several kids visiting with one another. I didn't really think anything of it since the beach is in a residential area. I just figured these kids all knew each other. But then I overheard one of the little girls ask the price of the flower. The boy told her it was 30 shells. It was then I realized these children were selling their paper flowers in exchange for seashells. I immediately asked C if he wanted to buy some flowers and we started collecting seashells. Once we collected a good amount of shells I encouraged C to ask how much his favorite flower was. There were two he wanted. The Flower Boy said the green one would be 70 and the other sparkly flower would cost 100 shells. As we counted our shells the Flower Boy told us something in French that I didn't understand but through sign language we figured out he only accepted a particular type of seashell. It was like a little clam with grooves on the bottom. Of course this seashell was in great demand that day so how we were going to find 170 of these little shells I wasn't sure. But believe it or not we were able to find 70 for C to buy his green flower. We'd have to work a bit hard to buy the other flower.
I've never heard of children selling paper flowers on the beach but I immediately fell in love with the idea. Luckily, the Flower Boy's father spoke a little English so I asked him a few questions about this flower making business. He explained that it's a very old tradition and existed even when he was a child. No money is ever accepted. Kids only sell their crepe flowers in exchange for seashells. It's completely up to the child to decide what type of shells he/she will accept for payment. The father told me had I come on the previous day there were children lined up all along the beach selling their crepe fleurs. What a pretty site that must have been! The father continued to tell me that because of the problems Belgium is experiencing with it's country being divided between the French & Flemish this game is an excellent way for kids to communicate with one another regardless of their language. Being that the beach is in the Flemish region it's a great opportunity for French speaking children to speak to their Flemish neighbors. After the father explained this to me I was completely enamored with this flower game. Especially because it's just so European. Flowers are such a simple pleasure here. They're not expensive and are easily available at the local markets.
C & I visited another flower shop on the beach and he fell in love with another flower. This one was 110 of the same type of seashells. Madre mia. I wasn't sure if we could find that many by the end of the day. As the tide came in we found or I should say I found about 75 more seashells. C was busy jumping off of a sand moat while I looked for more shells.
The woman selling C's flower came down to 90 shells. As the tide came in a bit closer it started to drizzle so I asked C to find out if she would take 75 shells. I mean it was getting later and I thought there might be a price reduction lol! Unfortunately, we couldn't find the woman. So we went back to our neighbor and tried to negotiate for another flower. Lucky for us he accepted our shells in exchange for 2 more flowers.
Although I think his father encouraged the Flower Boy to accept our offer since we were Americans and we would eventually be going back to the Etat-Unis. Both the Flower Boy and his sister were adorable. There is something about hearing little children speak French that makes my heart melt. When we left the Flower Boy's sister yelled to us, "Bye guys!"
As we drove away from De Panne I was a bit sad. Most likely this would be our last visit for the summer unless by some miracle we have another Belgian heat wave. I really did fall in love with this beach. In many ways it reminded me a little of the beaches my friend L and I used to visit in California. I've never liked crowded beaches so we'd head for the beaches in the residential areas. I've enjoyed De Panne for the same reasons. There aren't any shops or restaurants on the boardwalk and the parking isn't always easy but it's exactly the type of beach I love.
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