Louvain-la-Neuve

50^th post!!!

And there could have been no better way to bring up the half-century than a post about LLN – the place where I had the three best months of my life.

Louvain-la-Neuve is not only the newest town in Belgium, but also a quite particular one, as half of its population is currently attending its university, while the other half is made mostly of former students, making it also the youngest town in the country.

The town was created with the sole purpose of hosting the Université de Louvain. One of the main features of the urban design of Louvain-la-Neuve was to make it people rather than automobile centric. The city center is built on a gigantic concrete slab, with all motorized traffic traveling underground. The ground level of the city centre is almost entirely vehicle free.

The architecture which is a mixture of both new & old designs combined in the same building is unusually interesting. There are statues at every nook and corner and the city

Louvain-la-Neuve is looked as a model city by several cities worldwide (as far as Shanghai) interested in modern urban development.

The pains of bondage & confinement

Strange as it may sound, we actually used to call this structure 'The Jetty' -
coz the view of the nearby lake used to make us feel nostalgic about the lakes at IIM Calcutta

Aula Magna

Childhood innocence
- dont u wish u were a kid once again ...oblivious to the wheelings and dealings that make this world a big bad place :-(

The road less taken
- a footpath in one of the Park Scientifiques

The plan

Christmas decoratoins in Rue Charlemagne

God save the residents - a rocket has just crashed into this building !!!
If you are somehow unable to recall where u saw such rockets before, think Tintin.
(Comics are very popular in Belgium. Reme Hedge, the creator of Tintin is a Belgian)

Rue de Haute ( The high/fashionable road)
- behind the bushes is Don Boscot, my home for three months.

Somebody please give him a lift... he has been waiting for years :-(

Grand Place

The Centre Sportif Du Blockry

- with facilities like these, it is never all work and no play at LLN.


Another attraction at Louvain-la-Neuve is the '24 h Velo'.
It is the BIGGEST STUDENT PARTY in Belgium.
Pictures of 24 h Velo were uploaded in another post:
The 24 hour Velo at Louvain-la-Neuve