Bruges

Saying that I’m not too familiar with Bruges is a bit of a euphemism. I’ve spent less than half a day in the city. Well, I wasn’t exactly in Belgium for tourism, and these few hours in Bruges were more of a bonus destination than anything else.

That’s why I don’t have much to tell about the city; Wikipedia and the city’s official tourism website will be more informative on the subject than I can ever be.

Actually, for the longest time, I didn’t really have any specific image of the city. Then, I watched the movie In Bruges (that I really advise you, it’s a very good movie) and it gave me my first glimpse of the place.

The center of the city is indeed quite beautiful and more than worth a visit. Being from the French South-West myself, I’m quite familiar with very old towns and buildings, and it was interesting to discover a similar place, but in Northern Europe.

Bruges is a pretty touristy place. I was there in November (that was back in 2009, by the way) and it was somewhat crowded. I suspect that during warmer months, it may be a bit too crowded for my taste, I don’t know…

So yes, I don’t have much else to tell you about the place, but I have a few pictures to show you. Most of them were taken during a boat ride as Bruges has a few canals and they probably are the most scenic spots in the city.

Enjoy.

From the boat ride:

(click on the pictures below to see them full-size)

And walking around the main square, in front of the Belfry:

There is much more to the city than these few spots, although those are probably the most picturesque. I just didn’t take pictures of the other parts of town we saw. As mentioned at the beginning of the post we really only spent a few hours in the city.

I hope I’ll get back one of these days, but seeing where I live nowadays, the chances are not very high. Well, we never know.

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