Ixelles Ponds

About

The Ixelles Ponds (French: Étangs d'Ixelles, pronounced [etɑ̃ diksɛl]) or Elsene Ponds (Dutch: Vijvers van Elsene, pronounced [ˈvɛi̯vərs fɑɱ ˈɛlsənə]) are two freshwater ponds in the Brussels municipality of Ixelles, Belgium. The ponds we can see today are those spared by a 19th-century campaign of drying the wetlands of the Maelbeek valley between La Cambre Abbey and the Place Eugène Flagey/Eugène Flageyplein. The two long and narrow ponds, whose total lengths are approximately 700 metres (2,300 ft), and widths are approximately 50 metres (160 ft), are aligned on a roughly North–South axis and are separated by a narrow strip of land.

With the surrounding park, the Ixelles Ponds are the tip of a long strip of almost uninterrupted greenery reaching all the way from the Sonian Forest deep into Brussels' urban tissue. The ponds are a popular recreation area for local residents pertaining to the Belgian upper-crust. However, in the late 1990s, the water was polluted with cyanobacteria.

This is still the case with the boating lake in the nearby Bois de la Cambre/Ter Kamerenbos where signs are posted at regular intervals, warning of a risk of botulism. Fishing is allowed in the ponds on Wednesdays...