Page 92 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Belgium & Luxembourg

90  BEL GIUM AND L UXEMBOURG REGION B Y REGION

SHOPPING IN BRUSSELS

Upmarket stores in Brussels have high- a well-tuned sense of value for money,
quality goods, elegant wrappings and and prices are keen at the high-street
professional service. International haute chain shops and supermarkets, for clothes,
couture labels and top-brand chocolate beers and biscuits. Bargain hunters in
shops radiate a sense of luxury, while the search of antiques and bric-a-brac stand
boutiques of up-and-coming designers a good chance of success, and will
have an off-hand nonchalance or an edgy certainly enjoy Brussels’s vibrant antiques
intensity. However, all Belgians also have and flea markets.

Fashion
Downtown’s Rue Antoine
Dansaert is at the heart of
Brussels’s thriving fashion
industry. Its principal outlet
Stijl has sold the work of
fashion graduates from the
Antwerp Art Academy since
1984, and still offers the best
wares produced by domestic
talent. Further down the street
Annemie Verbeke offers
Window display at a designer fashion boutique on the Rue Neuve beautiful knitwear. In the nearby
Rue du Flandre is the shop of
Where to Shop Dutch low-cost store, selling Martin Margiela, one of
Brussels’s Grand Place is everything from clothes to Belgium’s most talked about
surrounded by lace vendors, kitchen utensils. designers. The radical Belgian
chocolate shops and souvenir hat designer, Elvis Pompilio,
outlets. The most impressive has a shop in Avenue Louise.
collection of shops nearby is Markets and Antiques
Galéries St-Hubert (see p66), During most weekends, visitors
an opulent arcade housing will find a brocante (a glorified car Chocolates
upmarket outlets. Northwest boot sale combined with street There are 81 chocolatiers listed
of the Grand Place is Rue party) somewhere in the city. in the Brussels phone book (not
Antoine Dansaert, centre of These are listed in most of the including franchise shops), almost
the Bruxellois’ contemporary free events magazines, as are all of high quality. The three big-
fashion scene. For all major the various farmers’ markets gest chains in Belgium are Godiva,
high-street chains, there is the found across the city. The latter Neuhaus and Leonidas. Galler
pedestrianized Rue Neuve near often have some remarkable and Corné Port-Royal are also
the Grand Place. Between the local breads and cheeses. excellent. All have numerous
Lower and Upper towns is the Cheapest and most extensive outlets throughout the city. The
antiques district of Rue Haute of the traditional markets is the area around the Grand Place has
and Rue Blaes. Close by is the Marché du Midi (6am–1pm many chocolate shops, but true
Place du Grand Sablon where Sundays) that reflects the tastes
exquisite chocolate shops can of the area’s North African com-
be found alongside high-end munity. The eclectic Marolles
florists and antique shops. Marché aux Puces, a flea mar-
South of the Palais de Justice ket (7am–2pm daily, but best at
lie Boulevard de Waterloo and weekends), dates from 1873 and
Avenue Louise, with top is the starting point for any
boutiques such as Gucci. antiques hunter. It can take time
to sort through the various
boxes of items, but there are
Department Stores
definitely bargains to be found.
City 2, at the northern end of For pre-sorted antiques, it is
Rue Neuve, is the largest urban best to head for the more
shopping centre in Belgium expensive weekend market
and hosts the department (9am–6pm Saturday, 9am–2pm
store Inno. Further south on Sunday) in front of the Notre- The Marolles flea market, perfect for
the same street lies Hema, a Dame du Sablon. bargain hunters

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