La Bonne Auberge
Include a day trip to the charming town of Bruges in Belgium's Flemish region on your Paris holiday. You'll visit one of the most beautifully preserved medieval towns in Europe. In summer you'll cruise down Bruges famous canals and see why the city is known as the "Little Venice of the North".
In the restored chapel of a 12th-century hospital building with superb timber beamwork, this museum shows various tortuous-looking medical implements, hospital sedan chairs and a gruesome 1679 painting of an anatomy class. But it is much better known for six masterpieces by 15th-century artist Hans Memling, including the enchanting reliquary of St-Ursula.
The Lesse River winds through pretty oak woods, agricultural meadows and limestone hills. At Han-sur‑Lesse the river tunnels underground forming magnificent caves that are the region’s biggest tourist draw - the famous Grottes de Han Guided visits (English often available) start after a 10-minute ride in charmingly rickety open-sided tramcars.
Formidable queues form to see The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb (De Aanbidding van het Lams God ), a lavish representation of medieval religious thinking that is one of the earliest-known oil paintings.
Bruges’ most celebrated art gallery. While not enormous, the 11 rooms pack in an astonishingly rich collection whose particular strengths are in superb Flemish Primitive and Renaissance works, which depict the conspicuous wealth of the city with glitteringly realistic artistry.
Waterloo’s most visually arresting battlefield sight is a 40m grassy cone of artificial hill that rises steeply to a massive bronze lion. It commemorates William of Orange (later King William II of the Netherlands), who was wounded on this spot while co-commanding Allied troops.
Watch lace-makers at work at the Kantcentrum. Lace (kant in Flemish, dentelle in French) blossomed in Flanders in the 16th century. Naaldkant (needlepoint lace), which developed in Italy, was predominantly made in Brussels while kloskant (bobbin lace) is believed to have originated in Bruges.
Brussels’ greatest art-nouveau gem is the Maison Cauchie , whose stunning 1905 facade is lavishly adorned with stylised female figures. It looks like a Klimt painting transformed into architecture.
You'll pound the pavement in Brussels on a four hour guided walking tour with a twist as you following the trail of Brussels’ top chocolate shops. A chocoholics dream! Your knowledgeable local guide will point out the major sights and explain the history of Brussels and why its famous for mouth watering chocolate.
The prestigious Royal Museums of Fine Arts incorporate the Musée d’Art Ancien (ancient art); the Musée d’Art Moderne (modern art), with works by surrealist Paul Delvaux and fauvist Rik Wouters; and the purpose-built Musée Magritte.
A completely anonymous, suburban yellow-brick house: that's the façade of the Musée Magritte, and the façade that René Magritte, Belgium's most famous surrealist artist, showed the outside world. This museum in Jette occupies the house where Magritte and his wife Georgette lived from 1930 to 1954. Its appeal comes from its incredibly ordinary nature.
Since the 1860s, Chimay’s world-famous Trappist beers have been brewed at the austere Abbaye de Scourmont , 7km south of Chimay. The monks do not allow visitors into the brewery, but 1.
Back in 1521, Anderlecht was still a country village when the world-famous humanist Erasmus came to ‘play at farming’. The lovely brick home where he stayed for five months is now this museum. It’s an unexpected little gem furnished with fine artworks including several Flemish Primitive paintings and some priceless manuscripts.
‘HALT! Those who cross this line will be shot’ declares a welcoming sign in three languages. Built in 1906 as an outlying defence post for Antwerp, Fort Breendonk became an infamous Nazi concentration camp in WWII. Its low-slung concrete structure is still eerily surrounded by barbed-wire fences and fronted by herringbone guard huts.