Paperflowers at the Belgian coast

Thanks to building forts on the waterline and then helping other kids protecting their structure, the boys got acquainted with some little kids on the beach and quite chatty with their parents too. Sometimes I wondered if they were more friends with the parents than with the children.   Anyhow...those other children got paperflowers on the beach and their parents explained ours all about the shell economy.  They got donated a flower and some correct shells to get started and shop some flowers of their own. 

I've never been as a child to the Belgian coast myself so I'm not knowledgable at all about the do's and donts of this cultural heritage.  Because of some googling taught me that this habit of making paper flowers and sell them is indeed something very typical of Belgium only and is recognised as local cultural heritage and can already be traced back to 1820.  Fascinating. In 2023 there's been a Belgian championship Belgian flowers in Knokke. 
And much to my surprise it is prone to real economics with demand and supply:  only a specific shell is acceptable as "money" and because there's more of them to be found at the east coast compared to the west costs, there is a considerable price variance depending on location.  


Anyhow...as a result... We were shopping in the Action of De Panne that night who had much to our surprise no materials at all (anymore) to make paperflowers. Neither did Zeeman, Kruidvat, .... but Hema was our savior with ready to go starter kits.  Go Hema! 
That evening and the next mornings we were busy in our appartment with a table full of colorful crepe paper. 

Sorting the flowers to allow the price setting

Once we had flowers, we also used it as a valid ticket for the children to ride the coastal tram in Belgium during summer. Pretty cool huh. 

The next mornings, we used the low tide period to find the correct shells as currency.  So we could go and buy more flowers if our market stand was getting empty quickly because they probably first priced the flowers a bit too cheaply.  Only the banded wedge shell (zaagje) is acceptable in De Panne. 

And then it is a matter of setting up your little shop...and wait for shoppers (and go scouting for other shops in the neighbourhood of the beach as well).  We found it always the busiest later in the afternoon when it was also high tide (and therefore all the fortress building had come still and all the people were really packed closely on the beach).  It was so funny and cute to observe them and the linked flower/shell economy running around us. 

And now at the end of summer...we still have a vase of paper flowers in our living room and a bag of "shell money".