Amongst Europeans, Brussels is best
known as the home of the EU, which,
given recent developments, is
something of a poisoned chalice. But
in fact, the EU neither dominates
nor defines Brussels, merely forming
one layer of a city that has become,
in postwar years at least, a
thriving, cosmopolitan metropolis.
It's a vibrant and fascinating
place, with architecture and museums
to rank among the best of Europe's
capitals, not to mention a superb
restaurant scene and an energetic
nightlife. Moreover, most of the key
attractions are crowded into a
centre that is small enough to be
absorbed over a few days, its
boundaries largely defined by a ring
of boulevards known as the
"petit ring".
All prices are given in
euros
, the new currency that replaced the
Belgian Franc on January 1, 2002.
The exchange rate is fixed at one
Euro to 40.34 Belgian Francs.
The layout of this city centre
embodies historic class divisions.
For centuries, the ruling class has
lived in the Upper Town, an area of
wide boulevards and grand mansions
which looks down on the maze of
tangled streets that characterize
the Lower Town, traditionally home
to shopkeepers and workers. This
fundamental class divide has in
recent decades been further
complicated by discord between
Belgium's two main linguistic
groups, the Walloons (the
French-speakers) and the Flemish
(basically Dutch-speakers). As a
cumbersome compromise, the city is
Belgium's only officially bilingual
region and by law all road signs,
street names and virtually all
published information must be in
both languages, even though
French-speakers make up nearly
eighty percent of Brussels'
population. As if this was not
complex enough, since the 1960s the
city has become much more ethnically
diverse, with communities of
immigrants from North Africa,
Turkey, the Mediterranean and
Belgium's former colonies as well as
European administrators, diplomats
and business people, now comprising
a quarter of the population.
Each of these communities leads a
very separate, distinct existence
and this is reflected in the number
and variety of affordable ethnic
restaurants. But, even without
these, Brussels would still be a
wonderful place to eat : its
gastronomic reputation rivals that
of Paris and London, and though
restaurants are rarely inexpensive,
there is great-value food to be had
in many of the bars . The
bars themselves can be sumptuous,
basic, traditional or very
fashionable - and one of the city's
real pleasures. Another pleasure is shopping
: Belgian chocolates and lace are de
rigueur, but it's also hard to
resist the charms of the city's
designer clothes shops and antique
markets, not to mention the numerous
specialist shops devoted to anything
and everything from comic books to
costume jewellery.
Many of the city's best bars and
restaurants are dotted round the
city centre, within the petit ring,
and this is where you'll find the
key sights. The Lower Town
centres on the Grand-Place, one of
Europe's most magnificent squares,
boasting a superb ensemble of
Baroque guildhouses and an imposing
Gothic town hall, while the Upper
Town weighs in with a splendid
cathedral and a fine art museum of
international standing, the Mus้es
Royaux des Beaux Arts. Few visitors
stray beyond the petit ring, but
there are delights here too,
principally in St Gilles and Ixelles
, two communes (or boroughs)
just to the south of the centre,
whose streets are studded with
fanciful Art Nouveau residences,
including the old home and studio of
Victor Horta, the style's prime
exponent.
