La Maison Cauchie, charming on a Sunday afternoon in Brussels

I’m just home after having spent a pleasant hour at La Maison Cauchie, a preserved Art Nouveau house near Parc Cinquentenaire in Brussels (5 rue des Francs, south side of the park). The house is one of only four that the artist Paul Cauchie built and it dates from 1905. The facade and decoration inside the main room make use of the sgraffito technique, essentially a layering of different colours of plaster and mortar. There’s a small gallery in the basement of the house and the ground floor is preserved and can be hired for exhibitions, receptions etc., while the top floors are still lived in. Today I was also lucky enough to meet Guy and Léona Dessicy (pictured below), the couple who started to renovate the house at the start of the 1980s and now, in their eighties, call by on the days that it’s open. If you’re near Mérode on the first Sunday afternoon of the month and pass by – €4 to go inside.

More photos available on Flickr