About

Bretodeau is an online magazine dedicated to the quiet pleasures of literature, history, art, places and the everyday. It is a virtual treasure box where stories, books, images, music, ideas, and forgotten corners of the world are gathered with the hope that they might add a little something to our quotidian lives, making them just a bit brighter and slightly more sweetened.

The idea grew out of a longing for sunshine, the lure of writing, and an urge to explore the beauty of creativity. It was also born from a lifelong love for Amélie and the small memory box that creeps out of her bathroom tiles: an old rustic tin filled with forgotten marbles, plastic toy bikers and faded postcards that suddenly make life tingle again with meaning and excitement.

Bretodeau is inspired by that same belief: that the seemingly unimportant often deserves a second glance.

I'm Danae, the editor and writer behind Bretodeau. A cheery introvert, I have settled for the thrills and spills of expat life in Brussels, while nurturing a lifelong fascination with literature, history and the stories that connect people to places. Bretodeau is my plunge into the world of words and the slightly nerve-racking joy of sharing them with others.

I believe in the power of the small. We often wait for the grand moments to feel happy or whole, but it is rather in those quiet, little things that we may find the spark that gets us going and reminds us of the richness of the world around us.

As Samuel Johnson, the giant of English letters, once wrote:

"There is nothing, Sir, too little for a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible."

I hope Bretodeau becomes one of those little things.

Welcome. ❤