Discovery Yvoir : Children of the country

Born in Namur or having come to live there, Namurians of stock or originating from the neighboring cities or villages, the personalities linked to the Walloon capital are numerous. The valley of the Meuse has also seen the emergence of personalities. In addition to those presented below, we can mention Blanche de Namur, countess of Namur born in 1320, queen of Sweden consort for three decades. We also think of Catherine Maloteau, the first woman mayor of Namur (1734-1749) or Fabienne Bister (born in 1963), granddaughter of the founder of the Bister mustard factory in Namur, the last director of the company which was sold in 2019. On the male side, we can not forget the brothers Remy (1966-2006) and Lucas Belvaux (1961), inseparable from the development of B. Poelvoorde. We will still mention Philippe Lambillon and Adrien Joveneau, Julie Taton or Christophe Deborsu having all burst the small screen as journalists or presenters (RTBF and RTL-TVi) during decades.

Blanche of Namur (1320-1363)

Blanche de Namur was born in Namur (county of Namur). Eldest daughter of Jean I of Namur and Marie d'Artois, she spent her childhood at the castle of Wynendaele, residence of the count family of Flanders, where she received a royal education, just like her mother, a relative of the king of France. She was queen consort of Sweden from 1335 to 1364 and queen consort of Norway from 1335 to 1344. Blanche of Namur had a marked taste for art and poetry. She died in Stockholm in 1363. An eponymous beer and a brewery on the Citadel pay tribute to her.

Julie Billiart (1751-1816)

Marie-Rose Julie Billiart was born near Compiègne (Oise) in 1751. She was the sixth of seven children and very quickly turned to the faith, teaching catechism to children when she was only seven years old. Very pious, affected by illness and partial paralysis at a very young age, Julie took a vow of chastity and in 1804 founded the Congregation of the Sisters of Notre-Dame, committing herself to teaching poor children. From 1804 to 1816, Mother Billiart founded fifteen convents. In disagreement with the bishop of Amiens, she moved to Namur in 1809 where she remained until her death. She is buried in the chapel of the Namur convent. Julie Billiart was beatified in 1906 and canonised on 21 June 1969 by Pope Paul VI. Saint Julie Billiart is venerated on April 8th. A street in downtown Namur is dedicated to her as well as a museum (Centre Sainte-Julie). In 2014, the congregation counted 2,030 sisters spread throughout the world.

Adolphe Sax (1814-1894)

Adolphe Sax is probably the most famous Dinantais in the world. He was an instrument maker and inventor of several instruments, including the flugelhorn and, of course, the saxophone, to which he gave his name. Sax registered 46 patents. A tireless worker, it is thanks to his work that instruments were democratized and that it was possible to play music in the most modest villages. He also initiated a reform of music, from compositions to learning methods, and made improvements to most brass and wooden instruments. His Paris workshop had up to 191 workers in 1848 and produced nearly 20,000 instruments between 1843 and 1860. Finally, one can ask oneself what would be music without jazz..., but also what would be jazz without the saxophone, the instrument that probably best symbolizes the end of the^2nd millennium.

Félicien Rops (1833-1898)

Félicien Rops was born in Namur into a bourgeois family. Painter, draftsman, illustrator, aquafortist and engraver, his talents were multiple. Particularly gifted, Rops was also very controversial because his work is truly sulphurous. As a young candidate in philosophy at the Université libre de Bruxelles, Rops went from meeting to meeting and crossed paths with the future masters of realism in Belgium. His style quickly became free. Avant-garde, he draws with a certain modernity the body of the women, that he denudes and sketches in positions without ambiguity. Without any taboo, he crosses without hesitation religion, sexuality and death. A friend of Baudelaire, whom he invited to his home at the Château de Thozée (Mettet), he frequented Paris from 1863 and settled there in 1874. He left an impressive body of work in terms of quality and diversity, of which Pornocratès is the most famous painting. A polygamist, he died surrounded by his daughter and the Duluc sisters with whom he had a relationship.

Franz Kegeljan (1847-1921)

The painter, draughtsman and engraver Franz Kegeljan was born in Namur and died in Profondeville. His work is mainly centred on the Meuse valley and Namur, whose history he painted in some forty canvases. The city is faithfully represented through the ages. Son of a banker, husband of Louise Godin, who was also wealthy, he lived on his income, which allowed him to devote himself to his art. With his wife, they built a private mansion at 42 rue de Fer. This superb building is today the town hall of Namur. Franz Kegeljan also painted views of the Ourthe and Semois rivers as well as landscapes of other regions of Belgium, France and Germany. He was also a pastellist and engraver. Kegeljan 2.1 has paid tribute to the hundred years of his death through three exhibitions (2021-2022).

François Bovesse (1890-1944)

Born and died in Namur, François Bovesse was a liberal politician and Walloon activist. Provincial governor and several times minister, Bovesse defended Wallonia in government. He denounced (in the 1920s) the appetite for Fleming and created the Fêtes de Wallonie in 1923 with the aim of demanding equal rights for Walloons and Flemings. He was dismissed by the German occupiers during the Second World War and was murdered by Rexist collaborators in 1944. Many streets bear his name in the towns and villages of Wallonia, including one in Namur (Champion).

Michel Lecomte (1955)

Michel Lecomte was a sports journalist at RTBF for 40 years and retired in 2021. He was the soul of the sports department and its director for eighteen years. Passionate about all sports, he is the great architect of the diversity and quality of television broadcasts of sporting events. He has personally covered several Olympics, several World Cups and European Football Championships. Michel Lecomte also presented La Tribune between 2005 and 2020, a weekly programme debriefing the football championship. Throughout these years, his trademark has always been a mixture of loyalty and neutrality, relevance of information and a good dose of dry humour. We owe him one of the most famous laughs on Belgian television. Michel Lecomte has been an Officer of Walloon Merit since 2019 and received the Silver Gaillarde in 2021, a distinction awarded each year on the occasion of the Walloon celebrations

Benoît Poelvoorde (1964)

The public discovered Benoît Poelvoorde in 1992 with C'est arrivé près de chez vous, an ultra-cult film in which he played and directed with the complicity of Benoît Mariage and Rémy Belvaux. His mother owned a grocery store in the city center, and scenes from the film were shot there. Quickly, the successes follow one another and Poelvoorde is asked to interpret many comedies for the general public(Le Boulet, Podium, Asterix at the Olympic Games, Nothing to declare...), while at the same time, he excels in more dramatic roles(The Gates of Glory, The Bicycle of Ghislain Lambert, Coco before Chanel, The Very New Testament...). Benoît Poelvoorde has played in more than 60 films. A true icon of the cinema, the actor has created the Intime Festival in his hometown (a multidisciplinary literary festival that deals with cinema, music and photography). It is not uncommon to come across him in the city center or along the Meuse River.

Bernard Grafé (1969)

Great-grandson of Henri Grafé and Léontine Lecocq, Bernard Grafé proudly represents the fourth generation at the head of the Grafé-Lecocq wine business, founded in Namur in 1879. The Namur entrepreneur, proud of his city and his origins, joined the company in 1995 and has been in charge since 2000. In 2008, he opened the Œnothèque on the Place Saint-Aubain, the headquarters of the trading activities. Like any native Namurian with a good-natured and good-natured profile, he frequents the good addresses in the city centre, even if Bernard Grafé admits to going out more during his missions abroad than in his own city, which he knows like the back of his hand. A discreet and affable man, he says that Namur has a soul, which is reflected in its preserved architecture. He sees a bright future for the Walloon capital in terms of tourism and architecture. Bernard Grafé also insists on the social and societal role of his company

Vanessa Vaxelaire (1972)

A descendant of the Vaxelaire dynasty, whose grandfather was the founder of the Au Bon Marché stores and whose grandfather was a director of the GB-Inno-BM group, she trained as an actress. From Brussels, she decided with her husband Andy Wyckmans to take over the family castle in Bioul (Anhée). Together they planted their first two hectares of vines in 2009. Today, Vanessa is at the head of 11 hectares of vines planted around the 11th century feudal castle. Entrepreneur, leader of men (and women), Vanessa manages and dynamizes the vineyard on a daily basis and ensures its durability and development.

Cécile de France (1975)

Cécile de France was born and raised in Namur. After training as an actress in Lyon from 1995 to 1998, she was quickly noticed, but the real revelation came in 2002 with Cédric Klapisch's success, L'Auberge espagnole. She won the César for Best New Actress the following year, and then went on to make a string of remarkable films: Les Poupées russes (César for Best Supporting Actor), Fauteuils d'orchestre and Mauvaise Foi. She is Jeannine Deckers in Sœur sourire. She played for the Dardenne brothers(Le Gamin au vélo) in 2011, and reunited with Klapisch in 2013(Casse-Tête chinois). Her register evolves in the following years, seeing her evolve in darker, more intimate, more dramatic worlds. Episodically, Cécile de France also appears in TV productions or in dubbing.

Justine Hénin (1982)

Olympic gold medallist, four-time winner of the French Open, and winner of forty-three women's singles titles, Justine Henin has amazed women's tennis for a decade. A native of Namur, Justine trained in Jambes for many years and lived in Wépion when she was at the height of her sporting career. Although she has now retired from professional sport and lives in Monaco, Justine Henin remains the greatest Belgian tennis champion of all time. Holder of numerous titles and distinctions on a sporting and civil level, Justine was ranked^{number 1} in the WTA rankings for 117 weeks. Ranked between Serena Williams and Monica Seles, no French-speaking player has done better.

Mistletoe Home (1992)

Guillaume Wattecamps or Gui Home has made a name for himself by posting humorous videos on Youtube and Facebook. He plays the role of a flippant and lazy student with a peremptory tone. His clips were so successful that he quickly put together a show to reinterpret them on stage. With a degree in communication, the Namurian goes on tour in 2015 to criss-cross Belgium with his one-man show. At the same time, Gui Home is appearing more and more often in the media. After a short-lived collaboration with RTL-TVi, he is now one of the figures on the public channel RTBF. On the radio, he has a morning column on La Première and regularly appears in capsules or programmes on television, on La Une. GuiHome is the creator of the "Namur is a Joke" comedy festival, which is trying to establish itself in the Walloon capital.

Nafissatou Thiam (1994)

Nafissatou (Nafi) Thiam is the first Belgian sportswoman to win two consecutive gold medals (2016 in Rio and 2020 in Tokyo) and the second heptatlete to retain her own Olympic title. Since 2013, the one who is only now writing her own history has already proved to be one of the best Belgian sportswomen of all time, on a par with Eddy Merckx or Justine Hénin. Nafi has won a string of titles on the track and in the city. Golden Spike every year since 2013, Belgian Sportswoman of the Year (3 times), European Athlete of the Year in 2016, Athlete of the Year for the International Athletics Federation (2017), the most famous Belgian-Senegalese is also Commander of Walloon Merit 2016. At less than thirty years of age, she is one of the sharpest specialists in combined events and she certainly still has a lot to live for.

Discover Yvoir : Children of the country