July 22: Brussels

Layout / Tourism

Today, Jenna and I took a day trip to Brussels! Belgium is significantly smaller than France, so it was a big contrast from being in a large city like Paris where you can go anywhere and not even see half of it. As for Brussels, everything is pretty much in one spot, which is the City Center. The City Center is beautiful and well known for a reason, and there are other sites around it that also have big reputations, but it does not seem like it expands that much outside of it.

We covered most of what we wanted to within a single day trip, whereas you would have to pick and choose what you wanted to see if you only had a day in Paris (which would most likely be the Saint-Michael area if you were a first-time visitor). Because of that, tourism works a bit differently in Brussels than in Paris. While you have the overpriced shops and restaurants that any tourist stop has, Brussel’s touristy spots seem to be in certain concentrated areas due to its layout. While we did not stray super far from the City Center to confirm this (only a few miles), it seems plausible. And because Paris has many famous sites scattered around, you can find tourist areas in multiple places. Even somewhere like Bercy, which is not as popular with visitors, has the Bercy Village, Parc de Bercy, and a couple of museums. The only things we really encountered outside of the City Center in Brussels were shops (with a few museums). This is probably Brussel’s tactic to help bring in that good ole tourist money, though. Granted, they are a much smaller country with a much smaller budget and not as much preserved history as France so they can’t go all out with elaborate gardens/parks in the middle of the city. Additionally, a lot of English is spoken around the City Center. We could walk into a shop and it was likely that they spoke English really well. But, again, because of how big and spread out Paris is, you are less likely to find this. The more touristy areas are more likely to have English-speaking French people, but it is not guaranteed. Also, I was surprised by how much signage was translated into English in Brussels, even in spots that seemed more residential (although, most of the time it was a mix of French, English, German, and/or Dutch).