Ten Famous Belgians Walk Into A Bar Quiz

Answer: Jacky Ickx

Jacky Ickx not only won the 24 Hours race at Le Mans six times, he won three of them in a row in 1975, 76, and 77. He was also a successful Formula One racing driver, winning eight Grand Prix races and finishing on the podium a total of 25 times.

Thierry Marc Boutsen is a former Belgian racing driver who won three Formula One races in 1989; he retired from motor-racing in 1999 after a crash at La Mans. Gerhard Berger won ten Grand Prix races but is Austrian. David Coulthard is Scottish; he won 13 Grand Prix races.

Answer: Soeur Sourire

Sister Luc-Gabrielle (born Jeanne Deckers) was a member of the Dominican Order and used to sing in the convent before recording an album of songs in 1963, using the stage name of Soeur Sourire (Sister Smile). A single taken from the album, 'Dominique', became a hit across Europe and North America. The Singing Nun, as Soeur Sourire was often called, left the convent in 1967 and was never able to repeat her initial chart success. She recorded further (unsuccessful) records, became an advocate for birth control, and started a school for children with autism; however, after being sued by the Belgian government for unpaid taxes she committed suicide in 1985.

Sister Luke was the fictional heroine of 'The Nun's Story', the movie of which starred Audrey Hepburn; although Hepburn was born in Belgium she was actually English. Saint Frithuswith, also known as Frideswide, was an English princess bound to celibacy; the nunnery she founded in Oxford is said to be the precursor to the Priory which became the foundation of Christ Church College, Oxford. Katharina von Bora was a German nun who left her convent after several years and later married Martin Luther.

Answer: Georges Simenon

Georges Simenon was born in 1903, in Liège which is in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium. He left school with no formal qualifications and worked for a local newspaper, writing hundreds of articles and stories in the next few years. Altogether there were seventy-five novels and twenty-eight short stories about Maigret which were all written after Simenon moved to France - indeed, Maigret works in the Paris police force, where no doubt he picked up his pipe-smoking habit and his fondness for beer.

Georges Pompidou was Prime Minister of France from 1962 to 1968 and President of France from 1969 until 1974; he published a collection of French poetry in 1961. Yann Martel is a Canadian writer best known for 'The Life of Pi' which won the Man Booker Prize in 2002. Henning Mankell is a Swedish author whose best-known novels feature Inspector Kurt Wallander of the Ystad Police - Wallander smokes cigarettes rather than a pipe.

Answer: Whooping cough

Whooping cough, otherwise known as pertussis, is very contagious. It is caused by a bacterium, which Bordet managed, with his colleague Octave Gengou, to isolate and identify. The technique Bordet used has since been adopted in serological tests generally, including a test for syphilis. The development of vaccines to combat pertussis was only possible because of Bordet's work.

Chickenpox is caused by the varicella zoster virus; it is rarely fatal but can cause complications. The virus can be reactivated in later life when it is called 'shingles'. Measles (sometimes called English Measles) and Rubella (also known as German Measles) are caused by two distinct viruses.

Rowena, by the way, didn't have whooping cough. At least, not then.

Answer: Leo Baekeland

Leo Baekeland was born and educated in Belgium before moving to the USA. His initial interest in the development of a paper that would enable photographs to be taken in poor light (as opposed to the plates that were used in most photography at the time) led him to invent a process which he sold to George Eastman in 1899. Baekeland used part of the money to set up his own laboratory and was one of the first chemists to work on artificial polymers. His search for a process that would replace rubber in the binding and moulding of asbestos led him to the discovery of the world's first completely synthetic plastic, which he called 'Bakelite'.

Jim Bakker is an American televangelist who was accused of sexual misconduct and convicted of fraud, both in the late 1980s. Kenneth Baker is a British politician who had several roles in Margaret Thatcher's and John Major's governments in the 1980s and 90s. Boris Becker is German; he won the Wimbledon Men's Singles Tennis title when he was only 17 and went on to win five other Grand Slam singles titles.

Answer: Snowy

Tintin and his dog Snowy first appeared as a comic strip in a Belgian newspaper from 1929 - 1976. The 'Adventures of Tintin' were written by Georges Remi, using the pen name 'Hergé' - which is the French pronunciation of 'RG', Georges Remi's initials written backwards. Tintin's dog, Snowy, was a white Wire Fox Terrier who is particularly fond of Scotch whisky, loves bones, and hates spiders. Both Snowy and Tintin have appeared in films, on television and radio, and in the theatre. They've also been translated into more than fifty languages and rescue each other constantly from too many perils to list.

Huckleberry Hound, Lassie, and Snoopy are all American dogs. Lassie was a fictional character but a real dog, while Snoopy and Huckleberry were both cartoons and therefore not real. Lassie was a collie, Snoopy a beagle, and Huckleberry was a hound dog - a blue hound dog, which may explain why he talks with a southern American accent. ;)

Answer: René Magritte

René Magritte painted his first surrealist painting in 1926 but his first exhibition in Brussels was heavily criticised so he left for Paris but met little success there either. Under the patronage of the British poet Edward James, Magritte lived in London for part of the 1930s and there painted at least one of his most recognised works, 'La Reproduction Interdite', known in English as 'Not to be Reproduced'. He stayed in Brussels during World War II, after which he not only produced his own works but also became a successful forger of works by artists such as Picasso. Like all surrealists, Magritte painted works designed to challenge the reality experienced by the viewer. His apparently straightforward painting of a pipe is labelled 'Ceci n'est pas une pipe' - 'This is not a pipe' - which of course it's not, it's a painting.

Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali were both 20th century Spanish artists. While Dali experimented with the Cubist style, with which Picasso is most closely associated, he is best known for his surrealist works. Anthony Van Dyck was Belgian; he became resident in England in the 1630s and was most famous for his paintings of King Charles I and other members of the royal family. Van Dyck was knighted by Charles I and is buried in St Paul's Cathedral, London.

Answer: Smurfs

Smurfs were created by the Belgian cartoonist Pierre Culliford, using the pen name 'Peyo'. The Smurfs originally spoke in French and were called 'Les schtroumpf'; this word was translated into Dutch as "smurf" and when an anglicised version was produced, the name 'Smurf' stuck. Smurfs have lots of adventures and they've even been in the movies.

Snorks are a race of underwater creatures originally drawn by another Belgian, Nicholas Broca, and developed by Freddy Monnickendam, also a Belgian, who had been responsible for the commercial development of the Smurfs. Snickers is the name of a candy bar and Smarties are British sweets traditionally sold in a tube.

Answer: Creme de cassis

Creme de cassis is a liqueur made from blackcurrants. A specialty of the area around Dijon in the Burgundy region of France, it is made by infusing blackcurrants in a clean spirit and adding sugar to the mix. Creme de cassis can be mixed with several other drinks, usually as an aperitif or cocktail; Kir is a mixture of crème de cassis and white wine. Creme de cassis is mentioned as one of Poirot's favourite drinks in several novels by Agatha Christie, as is another of his favourites, Tisane - a form of herbal tea.

Calvados is a type of apple brandy made in Normandy; whiskey and gin are spirits.

Answer: Mercator

Gerard Mercator was born in 1512; his name at birth was Gerard de Cremer but he later translated his name into the Latin 'Gerardus Mercator' as it was fashionable to have a Latin name at the time. Mercator published his first map in 1537 - a map of Palestine illustrating texts from the Bible. After being imprisoned for seven months on charges of heresy, stemming from his interest in Protestantism, Mercator moved to Duisberg where he produced his most important works. In particular, Mercator produced a Projection World Map, which used astronomical and mathematical techniques to show a map of the whole world on a flat surface. For the first time this projection, and the charts Mercator produced as a result, allowed navigators to plot courses using straight lines and seafarers were able to pinpoint their positions much more accurately.

There never was a person called Mercedes Benz - but there was a German businessman called Emil Jellinek who was on the board of the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (Daimler motor company) who commissioned ordered 72 cars from the company, including a specially-designed sports car which was to be named the 'Mercedes' after his daughter. The first car was delivered to Jellinek in 1900.

The Moomin family are Swedish trolls who form the basis of series of books and a comic strip syndicated widely across Europe and other parts of the world, including Japan where Moomins have starred in several television series. Marco Polo was a Venetian merchant who travelled throughout central Asia and China. His journey, made with his uncles Niccolo and Maffeo, lasted 24 years. Marco returned from his travels in the middle of a war and was immediately imprisoned; while in jail he dictated stories from his travels to another prisoner who later published them under the title 'The Travels of Marco Polo'.