Turnhout

Sometimes the photo you don’t like is also important

Brussels is one of the most interesting European cities I’ve seen. I didn’t immediately fall in love with it but it conquered my heart in time.

Where to get the best chocolate in Brussels

Alongside beer, chocolate is undoubtedly Brussels’s most famous product. Every year, Belgium produces 220,000 tons of it. Chocolatier Laurent Gerbaud tells me where to get the best Brussels chocolate.

Only here for the beer?

Lots of Belgian beers, but only one Fool

Bruges is too far north for the grapes that form such a huge part of nearby France’s agricultural heritage, but what it lacks in local wine, it makes up for with beer.

Christ’s blood lies in Bruges, literally

Most know Bruges for its romantic canals, cobbled streets and great chocolate. Fewer may know it was also a pilgrimage destination. Its Basilica of the Holy Blood is considered to keep a very special vial of blood: that of Jesus Christ.

Bruges: powered by the pious and the wealthy

The tension between commerce and piety is a defining part of Bruges's history.

In Bruges, you'll get away with a chocolate dinner

“Even if you came here with no intention at all to buy chocolate, it would beat you into submission,” says an Englishwoman sitting near me at breakfast.

If you think time travel is impossible, come to Bruges

To walk around Bruges is to see its history of Christian devotion fixed in paint and stone. You can’t understand the city without understanding its medieval origins. Fortunately, time travel is possible.

Guido Gezelle, Bruges' priest-poet

Bruges, like so many other places in the Flanders region of Belgium, has long sought to define its linguistic and cultural position: balancing the French and Flemish parts of its identity.

How I found this beautiful scene in Bruges

When I saw this nun walking over the grass to take a short-cut, I waited until she stepped into a free space between the trees so I could capture the sense of peace in this remarkable place.