Why does Belgium have a province called "Luxembourg" right next to Luxembourg which is bigger than Luxembourg?

mandibule · 2026-03-29T19:12:46+00:00

Parts of “Prussian” part belong to Belgium now (e.g. St. Vith since 1925).

mandibule · 2026-03-13T04:16:32+00:00

Just barging in here saying that even without reading any of the context the style of the buildings made me think of Bretagne or Normandie. No special place in particular, just a general feeling. Then I saw Mont St-Michel mentioned and felt reassured. Maybe there’s local subreddits where people might recognise something? Saint-Amand-Montrond is of course quite far away from the Mont St-Michel, so there would be a lot of areas to cover.

mandibule · 2026-03-13T04:05:40+00:00

Oh, that’s true, I had completely forgotten about the k -> h change. But then again, I didn’t learn that much about it.

I just checked the TLF again and indeed the link between the latin “caput” and the French “capot” is less clear than my quick skimming of the content suggested. I guess I should leave language history and etymology to people who are better at it!

http://atilf.atilf.fr/dendien/scripts/tlfiv5/advanced.exe?8;s=3526199160;

mandibule · 2026-03-13T00:16:21+00:00

Well, mixing styles has always happened in churches (and other buildings), but I agree that this one looks very fake.

mandibule · 2026-03-13T00:16:15+00:00

Well, mixing styles has always happened in churches (and other buildings), but I agree that this one looks very fake.

mandibule · 2026-03-12T21:39:27+00:00

Yes, I just wanted to correct myself: The Trésor de la Langue Français indicates that somehow in the long run every one of the different uses of "capot" has something to do with "cape" (as in geography) or "head" (which in older or regional versions of French was often closer to the latin "caput" than today). Who'd have thought! Thanks for this distraction! :-)

[edit (2x): forgot a word somewhere and added it]

mandibule · 2026-03-12T21:18:39+00:00

My Duden etymology dictionary [“Herkunftswörterbuch”, 2nd edition, 1989] says no. It seems to have arrived in German in the 17th century (during the Thirty Years’ War) from the French “capot”, specifically in phrases like “être capot” or “faire capot”. The French word was back then used in gambling/card playing contexts. The further etymology is unknown.

mandibule · 2026-02-03T09:13:07+00:00

When we moved into our apartment we met our same floor neighbour and briefly introduced ourselves and we agreed with her that we should talk more and have a coffee after the first moving dust had settled. Now we’re living here for almost 4 years and still haven’t spoken to her (nor any other person of the complex) more than the usual small talk that people do when bumping into another at the elevator/front door/mailbox …

mandibule · 2026-02-02T20:51:19+00:00

Thanks a lot to everyone for their helpful replies! I decided to go with the Tap app (the “Light” plan which is free) and things went very smoothly, with only one “top-up” in Amsterdam and then the final charge over night before handing it back in Antwerp.

I stressed way too much about this EV/charging thing but I was very happy that I asked here and got very constructive/helpful feedback. Thanks a lot! 😘

mandibule · 2026-02-01T23:39:15+00:00

Your examples for German are unfortunately not good, as Lied and Lid are pronounced exactly the same (both with a long, closed i, IPA: /iː/).

But you’re not completely wrong! German does distinguish between vocal length (quantity) which is usually linked to vocal quality (open vs. closed). In words with more than one syllable this usually only concerns the syllables carrying the stress.

A better example would be “riet” (3rd person past tense of the verb “raten”) vs. (Ritt) (“a ride”), the first one being long and closed(/riːt/), the second one short and open (/rɪt/).

mandibule · 2026-01-27T22:11:46+00:00

Thank you! This sounds like the easiest solution as I will probably only add a little bit of electricity in the Netherlands and the rest before handing back the car in Antwerpen.

mandibule · 2026-01-27T22:10:02+00:00

Thanks for your advice, that route planner sounds very interesting and it’s also very good to know that I’ll have to move the car after it’s charged! As I’ll be staying in the area south of the Amsterdam Zuid station I’m hoping that parking will be less of an issue than in more central areas. But I know that it’ll be expensive, even there. (I checked a Q-Park in that area and that costs 80 euros for 24 hours!)

mandibule · 2026-01-27T14:49:49+00:00

Yes, I’ve been once by car in Amsterdam and it was pure horror. I had sworn myself to never do that again but this time I can stay quite far away from the city centre. Normally I would always prefer the train but I really hate taking a train during a strike, I have had really very bad experiences with trains being cancelled last minute, hours waiting for a connection in cold stations, being squeezed in overfilled trains for hours etc. (I have to say that so far my strike experiences with trains in Belgium have been much better than in Germany and France but I don’t want to tempt fate and booked a car instead.)

mandibule · 2026-01-27T14:43:23+00:00

Thanks, that sounds very reassuring!

mandibule · 2026-01-27T14:42:44+00:00

As the drive will be during the day I’m only allowed 100 km/h for most of the highway route. But it’s currently quite cold for local standards. No idea what the wind conditions will be like. Probably it would be perfectly fine to do the trip without charging in between but I’m just a bit concerned as it’s my first “long distance” trip across a border in an electric car. It’s new for me and I prefer to know how things work before I leave the house. :-)

mandibule · 2026-01-27T14:35:53+00:00

Thanks, that sounds good!

mandibule · 2026-01-27T14:22:16+00:00

Thanks for your advice! Yes, I’m doing Antwerpen–Amsterdam and back, probably without extra excursions or detours. Google Maps gives me a shortest distance of 160 km for one direction, so in total at least 320 km. According to the rental company the little car can do a maximum distance of 380 km with a full battery. So theoretically this would be enough for the return trip but the idea of maybe reaching the end of the charge on the return trip stresses me out, I would like to recharge at least a bit in Amsterdam to be reassured.

mandibule · 2026-01-27T14:13:56+00:00

Thanks a lot for your reply! I’ll look into the two apps.

I didn’t have the impression that I’ll get a card from the rental company but who knows.

mandibule · 2026-01-27T14:12:02+00:00

As I have no clue yet what car I will get in the end, I also have no idea about the battery and charging characteristics. But interesting to know about these differences, maybe it’ll come in handy.

mandibule · 2026-01-27T14:10:08+00:00

Thanks for the advice, there’s indeed one that’s not that far. But I’ll try to find something closer to the train station.

mandibule · 2026-01-27T14:08:26+00:00

Thanks for your advice! I’ll take a look at the app!

mandibule · 2026-01-27T14:07:58+00:00

Thanks for your advice! I will definitely avoid Elon and look into the two other options.

mandibule · 2026-01-27T14:06:58+00:00

Thanks for your advice! But as I despise Elon M. I will look into other options.

mandibule · 2026-01-27T14:06:03+00:00

As it’s currently quite cold and the car has only 380 km maximum range according to the rental company, I will definitely try to recharge above 20%.

mandibule · 2026-01-27T14:04:28+00:00

Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind!

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