What to visit in Belgium ?

Belgium runs on a productive misunderstanding: too small to be taken seriously, it hosts three cultures that coexist without really blending. The upshot is a country where you eat better than in most European capitals, where beer is treated with the seriousness of fine wine, and where Gothic architecture sits next to Art Nouveau districts without anyone finding it odd.

The country splits into three distinct zones. Flanders in the north, with Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp, holds the medieval canals and Flemish painting museums. Wallonia in the south offers the dense forests of the Ardennes, the caves of Han-sur-Lesse, and cities like Liège that are frankly underrated. Brussels, a bilingual enclave in the middle, plays its own role: the administrative capital of Europe and, at street level, a human-scale neighbourhood city.

Frequently asked questions

Visiting Belgium, in practice