My Belgium Trip

I took the TGV to Paris, then the Thalys to Bruxelles Midi. Louis Picked me up there and we walked to his place (20mn from the Station).



The Place & the people who get my future in theirs hands !!



Parc du Cinquaintenaire


Chilly morning after my Oral, chilling out in the Park close to the European Commission.



Louis, a french musician from Perpignan living in Bruxells I knew from High School who invited me at his place for a couple of days. He introduced me to new places I did not know in that fantastic city.


Centre de la Bande Dessinée (Cartoon Center) . For all the one who loves comics, cartoon,mangas : this is the place to visit. You will find out all your heroes !!!

I met by luck a small bar close to a bar I used to go when I go to Brussells called "la Mort Subite" but the next bar is cheaper and more lively, real people most of them talking flamish.
Have a look at the prices, it is located in the very center of the capital.



Here is the entrance of the famous Delirium Café. The Café I did not find each time I go to Brussels but thanks to Louis, We did it.

In a 18th century basement, in the heart of the "Free town": the "Ilot Sacré", and only a 100 meters away from the "Grande Place" you'll find the "Delirium Café".

A decoration full of old enamelled ad-panels, posters from the past time and colourful light-ads will duck you behind a world of beers and Gins.

De big wooden barrels invite you to taste the different drinks: Belgian and foreign beers, on bottle or of the barrel. Old gins, fruit gins or even with chocolate taste.

The Beer Collection is impressive and composed of more than 2004 beers; Beers around the world, rare and collectors beers. For every taste, from starter to advanced amateur (like me).
It was added to the Guinnes book of Records.

I made a promise to myself, if one day I'm lucky enought to work for the European Commission, after every single day, I will come there and have a different beer, chilling out and enjoying that fantastic place. Whatever might be the day, stressing, rainy, snowy, exhausting, does not matter, I will go there and invite a friend of mine to join (lol).




Magnificent House close to Louis' place


While I was walking around a park , lured by the European Flag lighted in a sunny day, Met that villa. (Catalan & French will get it)


The Little house & the crow (belgium new tale)



Destination Carcassone



What a fantastic day, It was the warmest day of the year !!! Perfect blue sky, clouds reappeared in south of France !! Time to flight back to France. Hope to see you soon Belgium.

Sum up of my Oral Examination

Hi everyone,

I have to say my overall feeling is that I won't be in the reserve list.
Here is the story:

I did not feel stress until the door was shut !!!
I look at the panel, in the eyes, and first mistake, I took the wrong sit and I have not noticed "because I was looking at the President of the Jury (I knew who He was before entering in the room) so I did not want to be in front of me" that there was a piece of paper and a bottle of water just next to the place I chose"

So he just nodded his head to indicate me the right place, as we say in France '
"Cela commence bien !! "= It begins quite well (ironia)

Then He explained me how the Examination will take place, and what surprises me is that he told me i will have to speak in the language the question will be asked.

So I was quite destabilized because I thought the Oral will be in my second language (I mean 80% of it, as many posts in that forum, mentionned it) and I learned a lot during 1 month, and read almost everything, Press, synthesis of my courses, possibles questions, vocabulary in english) and I was asked to present my CV & job experiences related to the Competition in French.

The night before, i learned by heart my presentation in english and i Could not find the rights words sometimes to describe my past!!!

But the "best" was to come, All the questions but 3 that is to say, 20 at least were in French mostly about situational questions.

I did not have any questions about WORD, EXCEL or whatever softwares.. shame

Neither did have questions on multicultural environment??
how will they assess my abilities to work in such an environment?

I did have : do you prefer to work alone in a room or with team?

How to plan a mission for your chief of unit?

How do you deal with a person who wait for your boss but he is on a meeting which takes more time than forecast ?

I was asked about filing?

I was not about my motivation?

In which DG's I would like to work?

what would I do If my boss was misadministrated money, 'instance of a german whose country gave in terms of UE contribuition more that the right amount of money he should give because of the high contribuition of his country in the past:!!!

i was asked what were the main institutions : I started to talk and with the stress i forgot the Court of Auditors, the Court of Justice, and concerning the EP, EC, Council forgot many things because of the stress

I was asked a question about environment (in english) and it was a good time , as for 10mns i was speaking french, i could not find the words, they did not come to my bloody mind, and as they were all stared at me, could not be silent, and I said : The UE was fighting against the environment (instead of Climate Change) and a guy told me really against, lol, sorry for the Environment, ....

Finally, When i was asked if i Had a question,
As i felt my oral was not that good, I asked a question about the fact that the Lisbon Treaty was signed last December and that the last & only country to ratify it will be Ireland and all the pressure will be on the country, and that I wanted to know the panel's opinion about it, do they think it will pass or not (because in the last time they reject it)
it sounded a good question: it sounded, lol, because the 2 guys of the jury told me, verbatim: You know we are European Civil servant, we have a right of reserve !!!

In a nutshell the 40mn went very fast, did not have 4 seconds to rest !!!
Wanted to have a glass of water, but did not have time to open the bottle, did not feel interupting the ORAL.


NB: I was told the results for french will be on April normally.
Overall feeling, could have done much much better, my english was pitiful "I'm normally really good especially when I talk"
I studied too much (wanted to know everything about institutions, policies, people working there) In the end I was asked 3 general questions that i replied badly (could have done better 2 years ago) because of the stress!!

C'est la vie...

Sincerely