Make way for the Brussels Rollers Parade

Make way for the Brussels Rollers Parade Exclusive: every Friday of the summer, Brussels thoroughfares open up to rollers BRUSSELS - As in Paris, several hundred in-line skating enthusiasts will probably set off every Friday of the summer in a procession on the capital's thoroughfares. The idea for the Brussels Rollers Parade was born in the mind of Carl de Moncharline, a PS candidate in the last municipal elections and well known in the trendy Brussels nightlife scene. An idea that seduced the Mayor of the City of Brussels. The mayor Freddy Thielemans also went to immerse himself with his police chief in the City of Light in the company of Bertrand Delanoë, his local counterpart. In Paris, on average some 12,000 in-line skating enthusiasts invade the main axes of the center every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, with peaks of 38,000 participants. "We don't imagine having as many in Brussels, but we are still aiming for a thousand people," explains Carl de Moncharline. The meeting point will be given to all the skaters of the kingdom every Friday at 9 p.m. on Place Poelaert, in front of the Law Courts. Then, group departure through the tunnels towards Avenue Louise, the Bois de la Cambre, Avenue Franklin Roosevelt, up to the Boitsfort racecourse. U-turn and direction Place Stéphanie where refreshments will be served before putting the skates back on to track the asphalt of Rue de la Régence, Rue Royale towards the Botanique, Place Rogier and the central boulevards to the Bourse and... the party in the Halles Saint-Géry district. The procession will be supervised by a brigade of rollercops, Brussels police officers specially trained in roller skating and equipped with state-of-the-art rollers. Pierre De Vuyst [Photo caption]: In Berlin also, rollers have found their place in society and traffic. Several thousand regularly skate together at the foot of the Brandenburg Gate. (DH)