You reach it by a fine _boulevard_ called the Avenue
Louise. In the middle of this _Bois de la Cambre_ there is a lake with
an island, on which stands a little coffee-house, the Chalet Robinson;
so called, perhaps, after Robinson Crusoe, who lived on an island.
Belgian families often go there to spend the summer afternoons. There
are lots of pigeons on the island, so tame that they run about on the
grass, and eat out of the children's hands, while the fathers and
mothers sit drinking coffee at tables under the trees.
[Illustration: ANTWERP.]
In Belgium the fathers and mothers of the _petite bourgeoisie_, or
lower-middle class, seem always to go about on holidays with their
children. They dine at half-past twelve, and after dinner off they go,
the parents arm-in-arm, and the children strolling before them, and
spend the rest of the day together. It is quite a sight on a summer
evening to see them coming home in crowds down the Avenue Louise, the
father often carrying the youngest on his shoulders, and the mother
with a child hanging on to each arm.
The Avenue Louise is in the modern part of the town.
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