Brussels

Have you booked a plane ticket to drop off your bags for a weekend in Brussels? Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Grand-Place, the epicentre of the old town, can be the ideal starting point for a first visit to the Belgian capital. It is home to the Hôtel de Ville (one of the most beautiful in the country), the Maison du Roi, which has become the Brussels City Museum, and a range of private houses built at the end of the 17th century, with façades of breathtaking richness down to the smallest detail. A few steps away, treat yourself to a stroll through the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert, one of the oldest covered galleries in Europe, as beautiful by day as by night... Brussels also has its status as a European capital with the Léopold district, that of the European institutions, where 30,000 people work directly for the EU.

Idea for an activity to do with the family during a stay in Brussels: go to the Mini Europe park. Located a few kilometers from Brussels, this park offers its visitors the chance to admire miniature replicas of various European monuments such as the Tower of Pisa, the Eiffel Tower, etc.

A trip to Brussels also gives you the opportunity to stroll down the busy Rue de l’Etuve, which leads to the Manneken-Pis statue, or to admire the Royal Palace with its classical architecture. Other must-see places in Brussels: the Parc du Centenaire, as well as the Atomium, which represents an atom enlarged to an immense size, not to mention the Brussels museums: Beaux-Arts, Magritte and the comic strip museum.

Because yes, Belgium is the country of comics! Every year, the comic strip museum welcomes more than 250,000 visitors who come to discover the permanent exhibitions (particularly devoted to the invention of this literary genre) and temporary exhibitions.

Brussels, gastronomic capital!

Attention all gourmet travelers: you will love visiting Brussels! Indeed, the Belgian capital is renowned for its crispy fries, as well as its soft waffles, not to mention its chocolates!

Did you know? Brussels airport sells the most chocolate in the world! A perishable but melting holiday souvenir to bring back from your stay in Brussels!

Book your direct flight Montpellier – Brussels! 2 flights per week with Transavia from April 2025.

Sites and monuments

• The Grand Place - classified by Unesco, is framed by the Town Hall with its impressive Gothic spire and the sumptuous baroque houses of the guilds. 
• Manneken-Pis - 55 cm statue of a little boy peeing. Combine the visit with the neighbouring museum which exhibits the different costumes he has been dressed in.
• Galeries Saint-Hubert - a chic neo-classical 19th century shopping mall given over to bookshops, breweries and chocolate shops. 
• Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie - the leading opera house in Brussels, dating from the 19th century
• The Stock Exchange - a 19th century neo Renaissance building with a facade of columns   
• Halles Saint-Géry - made of brick and wrought-iron, it has been renovated as an exhibition space and is located on the square of the same name, with its lively café atmosphere. 
• Cathedral of Saints-Michel-and-Gudule - in Gothic style, dominated by two refined towers. Pretty stained-glass windows, a crypt... 
• The Royal Palace - King Philip's residence opens its doors during the summer months
• Palace of Justice or Law Courts - the gigantic 2.6- hectare building, under construction for decades, is a mixture of styles, from Gothic to Neoclassical. 
• The Villa Empain - one of the most beautiful Art Deco buildings in Brussels 
• The European Parliament – a free tour of the modern building and hemicycle  
• The Atomium - erected for the 1958 Universal Exhibition, it depicts a giant iron unit cell. The upper ball houses an observatory

Parks and gardens

• Brussels Park - in front of the palace, a park with wide alleys and timeless charm
• Botanical garden - decorated with beautiful statues and vast greenhouses
• Parc du Cinquantenaire - 30 hectares of greenery, home to several museums (World Arts, Army and Autoworld, for car fans). 
• Leopold Park - in the heart of the European institutions, a lovely area of tranquillity
• Park of the Royal Castle of Laeken - near the Atomium, a park full of cherry blossoms surrounding tropical greenhouses

Museums

• City Museum - on the Grand Place, in the historic neo-gothic King's House
• Royal Museums of Fine Arts - there are three of them, bringing together masterpieces from all periods, including those of the Flemish Primitives, four paintings by Bruegel and 200 works by Magritte in a museum dedicated to the Surrealist painter. 
• Museum of Musical Instruments - a beautiful collection, in a magnificent Art Nouveau building
• Museum of Natural Sciences - to visit for its incredible dinosaur gallery 
• Belgian Comic Strip Center - in an Art Nouveau building by the architect Victor Horta, a museum dedicated to the great cartoonists, from Hergé to Franquin.
• MOOF - to admire 1300 figurines of comic book characters, from Smurfs to Asterix 
• Horta Museum - in the Saint-Gilles district, the house-studio of Victor Horta, one of the star architects of Art Nouveau. 
• Trainworld - In the former brick station of Schaerbeek (north of Brussels), the site brings the Belgian railways back to life with authentic locomotives.
• Parlamentarium - a multimedia exhibition that reminds us of the foundations of the European Union  
• House of European History - in a 1930s building with a modern glass structure, the exhibition evokes European history and integration.
• MIMA - in the building of the former Bellevue brewery, a place dedicated to urban contemporary art

• Chocolate lovers will take the Neuhaus or Godiva boutiques by storm (in the Galeries Saint-Hubert). Another tasty address: Laurent Gerbaud (near the Palais Royal) who mixes chocolate with ginger from Guilin, pears from the Cape or plums from Corsica... 
• Reread Tintin before following the footsteps of Hergé's hero, from the Place du Jeu de Balle immortalized in The Secret of the Unicorn to the Théâtre de La Monnaie (The 7 Crystal Balls) via the Museum of Natural Sciences (The Broken Ear). The Tintin shop (13 rue de la Colline) welcomes keen collectors.
• The history of France changed about twenty kilometres from Brussels, in the small town of Waterloo. On the battlefield, you can visit the memorial with its modern scenography which tells the story of the defeat of Napoleon's army in 1815, before climbing the steps of Lion's Mound to admire what Victor Hugo called the “morne plaine” (the dismal plain).

Starters

• Shrimp croquette - based on North Sea grey shrimp
• Asparagus à la flamande - served with hard boiled eggs, melted butter, chives...
• Vol-au-vent (queen's morsel) - puff pastry filled with chicken and mushrooms

Dishes

• Endive au gratin - endives wrapped in ham with a bechamel sauce
• Mussels - available in many forms and eaten with French fries
• Waterzoi - a dish of chicken or fish, accompanied by vegetables and served as a soup meal 
• Flemish carbonade - a kind of beef bourguignon, simmered in a beer sauce 
• French fries - in a restaurant or bought in a kiosk, it's a Belgian institution! 

Desserts

• Chocolate - white or dark, flavoured or praline, it's the ideal gourmet souvenir.
• Waffles - in Belgium they are rectangular and covered with sugar. 
• Speculoos - hard, cinnamon-flavoured cookies in the shape of characters

Drinks*

• Beer - of all colours, at every meal, with hundreds of references. The famous Belgian brands (Stella Artois, Leffe...) are complemented by traditional beers, such as Brussels Beer Project, a micro-brewery located in the heart of the city (rue Antoine Dansaert). 
• Peket de Wallonie - an alcohol based on juniper (called peket in Belgium), which can be enjoyed neat or in cocktails.
• The Zizi Coin Coin - this is made near Liège, based on Cointreau and lemon juice.
• Gin - it is becoming increasingly popular in Belgium. Among the gins produced in the country are Biercée's Gin or Cockney's, the oldest Belgian gin (1838).

*alcohol abuse is dangerous for your health, consume in moderation