Smarter than Poirot Trivia Quiz

Answer: Saxophone

Adolphe Sax patented the saxophone in 1846. He had earlier invented the saxhorn, but it was never as popular. When he invented the saxophone, he combined elements of the clarinet and the oboe, but it sounds like neither.

Answer: Liz Claiborne

Liz Claiborne was born Elizabeth Claiborne Ortenberg in 1929 in Brussels. The Liz Claiborne company was founded in 1976, and went on the stock market 5 years later. Claiborne was something of a marketing wizard, as she insisted that all stores which stocked her clothes must display them separately from the rest of the store wares and stock all lines offered by her company.

This was the first time that consumers had been able to shop specifically for a designer or by brand name alone, a practice which is now commonplace.

Answer: Orthopaedic Surgeon

Rogge retired from medicine to take up his role as President of the International Olympic Committee, but even prior to that he was heavily involved in sports. He represented Belgium in the Finn class of sailing in the Olympic games of 1968, 1972, and 1976, with his best finish being 14th place in the 1972 Munich games. He was also a 16 time Belgian champion and became president of the International Finn Association (IFA) from 1979 to 1981.

He was also a keen hockey and rugby player, representing Belgium at Rugby in ten international games, about which he once modestly remarked, "In my country, if you sit by the phone long enough, it will ring and you will be asked to play rugby for Belgium."

Ever the medical man, Rogge conducted research on muscle function during sailing as part of his thesis for the Sports Medicine program in 1972, and is remembered by his peers and patients as not only a very good surgeon but also one who continued to closely follow all scientific evolutions within the profession. This dedication allowed Rogge to advance his pre-IOC career until he was head doctor of the Orthopaedic Surgery Department at Ghent Hospital.

Answer: Herge

Cartoonist Herge wrote the series, "Quick & Flupke" (1930-1940) about two Belgian urchins and their adventures annoying a local policeman and "The Adventures of Jo, Zette and Jocko" (1936-1957), which was more action based and concerned siblings Jo and Zette along with their pet monkey, Jocko.

He is certainly best known for "The Adventures of Tintin" (1929-1976), which were originally serialised in newspapers. Following WWII, Remi founded "Tintin Magazine" in 1946, which ran until 1993, a full ten years after Remi's death. "The Adventures of Tintin" (1929-1976) documented the adventures of fearless reporter, Tintin, and his dog, Snowy, as they bravely sought out the latest hot story for print, although, despite all their heroics, Tintin is rarely seen to hand in a story.

If you should ever find yourself in Louvain-la-Neuve in Belgium, I thoroughly recommend a trip to the Herge Museum.

Answer: Jean-Marc Bosman

Jean-Marc Bosman was a Belgian footballer whose transfer from FC Liège to Dunkirk in 1990 was blocked by Liège, despite his contract having expired. In his lawsuit, Bosman sued Liège, the Belgian FA, and UEFA, argued that the rules set out by UEFA, which prevented him from leaving his club even though his contract had expired, amounted to a breach of his rights established in the 1957 Treaty of Rome; this had allowed for freedom of movement within the European Community, now the European Union.

The European Court of Justice found in his favour, and in 1995 ruled that players should be free to move when their contracts had expired, thus changing the face of European football.

Answer: Clovis I

Clovis was born in Tournai, in what was then the Roman Empire, and was a king of the Salian Franks, succeeding his father to the throne in 481, aged 16. At the Battle of Soissons in 486, Clovis led the forces which defeated the Roman army, led by Syagrius. This battle was hugely important as it brought about the end of Roman rule in the area and with the integration into his army of some of the soldiers who had fought for Syagrius. He then plundered much of the Roman territory, taking control of cities such as Verdun and Paris.

Through alliances with other Frankish forces, Clovis gained more land and won more battles, including the Battle of Tolbiac in 496, where he defeated the Alamanni, and the Battle of Vouillé in 507, where his forces defeated the Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse. By the time of his death in either 511 or 513, Clovis ruled an area extending from what is now the southern Netherlands to northern France.

Answer: Cinema

Varda is feted as a visionary French film maker, but was born in Ixelles, Brussels. She was hugely influential in the French New Wave film movement of the 1950s and 1960s and her best known works include "La Pointe Courte" (1954) and "Cleo from 5 to 7" (1961). "La Pointe Courte" (1954) is often cited as a pioneering work, the film responsible for the French New Wave, while in 2019, "Cleo from 5 to 7" (1961) was voted the second greatest film directed by a woman in a poll held by the BBC.

In 2017, Varda was the first female director to be awarded an honorary Oscar and two years prior to that, in 2015 she was awarded an honorary Palme d'Or by the Cannes Film Festival. She was described as "one of the gods" by none other than multiple Oscar nominated director, Martin Scorsese, who was also a close friend of Varda, as well as being an avid fan of her work. Scorsese justified his choice of phrase by explaining that "She was a wonder to me, reinventing constantly."

Answer: Gerardus Mercator

Gerardus Mercator may be remembered for cartography and his world map in particular, but he was also well versed in theology, philosophy, history, mathematics, and geomagnetism, as well as being an accomplished engraver and calligrapher, making him quite the polymath.

Mercator's 1569 world map shows sailing courses of constant bearing, known as rhumb lines, as straight lines which is an innovation that is still employed in nautical charts today.

Answer: Prince Oscar of Belgium

Prince Oscar of Belgium is the son of Princess Delphine and her American partner, Jim O'Hare, but for the first 12 years of his life, he was just Oscar O'Hare. His mother, Princess Delphine, had until then been Delphine Boël, a Belgian artist, who in 1985, aged 17, had been told by her mother that her father was none other than King Albert II of Belgium.

Delphine kept her secret in order not to cause embarrassment or create a scandal involving the royal family, but in 1999, an unauthorized biography of Albert's wife, Queen Paola, was published that referenced an unnamed illegitimate daughter of Albert's causing the world's press to pounce, and Delphine was outed as the daughter. Albert, however, denied this was the case, both publicly and privately.

Following the birth of her own children, Josephine in 2003 and Oscar in 2008, Boel,struggling to understand how a parent could reject their child, launched a legal battle to force Albert to admit she was his daughter. This culminated in Albert being ordered to take a DNA test in 2018, following his 2013 abdication which meant he lost any legal immunity.

In 2020, he acknowledged that Delphine was his daughter and half sister to his son, King Philippe of Belgium, and she and her children were granted princely titles by the Belgian Court of Appeals. As she was born out of wedlock, Delphine and her descendants are not in the line of succession to the Belgian throne, but she is officially Princess Delphine, with her children being Princess Josephine and Prince Oscar.

Answer: Space

Frimout served his time as Head of Section Instrumentation for the Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy and Crew Activities Coordinator and Experiment Coordinator for the European Space Agency (ESA) before landing his prime gig with NASA . Aboard the STS-45 Atlantis mission, he was a payload specialist who, during the course of the nine day flight, traveled 3.2 million miles in 143 Earth orbits and logged over 214 hours in space.

Following the mission, Frimout became a celebrity in Belgium and a ticker tape parade was given in his honour on his return. He was awarded the title of viscount in the Belgian nobility and a similar honour was bestowed upon the second Belgian in space, Frank De Winne, who served as commander of ISS Expedition 21 in 2009.