Less than 4 hours from Paris it is possible to find a total change of scenery, if you like to take the time to stroll… Once a year, we like to go there for a little family outing. Some people will say that it rains very often but we will tell them that most of the time it is enough to take out your rain cape or umbrella to make the sun appear as if by magic.

Discovering the small hotels, at the corner of the cobbled streets and most of the time pedestrian, is already the first step to a change of scenery. The names of unpronounceable streets such as Oude Burg, Sinkt Niklaastraat or Niklaas Departstraat, and you are taken into another world.

Then just go and have a drink at the Cambrinus and spend an hour looking at the consumption map to understand that you have entered another spatio-temporal dimension.

Above all, we must take the time to walk the streets with our family, which is our greatest pleasure. Admire the architecture, the sense of detail, the facades where the Spanish imprint has left its mark. Each time, in just a few minutes, we are plunged into another time. A time when it is good to take our time and take care of others.

Let yourself fall under the spell of an object placed there for the attention of passers-by, just for the pleasure of pleasing them. Admire the care with which the small houses are maintained and appreciate the quietness of the streets in which you can walk or cycle.

Wondering at everything together and having a good laugh. Walking, walking again because here everything is conducive to strolling and it is like a dive into the heart of the Middle Ages.

After having largely surveyed the canal district, it is time for us to go to the « quartier des gourmandises ». It’s a good idea to stop and admire or taste some of Bruges’ specialties at the chocolate maker Dumont. It’s especially high time to go and taste a Lièges waffle at the dealer’s at the truck parked on the Place du Bourg. Of course, given its notoriety, you have to queue, but here time takes its time and the smell is so pleasant that we have no worries. And then, we are ready to wait for hours just to admire the joy on the amazed faces of the future consumers?

These little trips to Bruges are like an annual family outing, just to take the time to be well together. We take pictures, selfies, hide behind bushes.

At every street corner, our eyes are caught by an ornament that takes us to another time. The time of Commissioner Van Inn’s novels. We then desperately look for the impasse of the Poisson-Gras and when we come across the effigy of the fishes on a chocolate factory just a stone’s throw from the Fish Market, we think we are close to the goal, even if the famous impasse only exists in the author’s imagination…

Take the time to walk all four, to marvel together or each at his own pace depending on the moment, in front of an alignment of facades, or in front of the splendid gardens. Simply be happy to share good times together, rejoice in the smiles of others and savour the peaceful side of this little Venice of the North.

Finally, take a little bit of height, from the Provincial Palace, to admire the Market Square, its Belfry, its rows of restaurants, its chip shops and take advantage of it to take some family photos that you will be delighted to look at when the lockdown has sounded…

Par Nathalie

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