FLANDERS AND BRUSSELS

Proud towers, picturesque market squares with magnificent town halls, dreamy tranquil canals and bridges - Flanders owes everything to the sea and trade. With its cities like Bruges, Antwerp, and Ghent, Flanders has been one of the most important centres of Western art and culture since the Middle Ages. Covering the coastline and seaside resorts, Brussels sprouts, Hop Town Popinge, almshouses, the railway station "cathedral", diamonds, windmills, chocolate and crafts, churches and ornamentation, Art Nouveau facades, colourful houses. The traces of Flemish masters such as Rubens (painter and diplomat) or Van Eyck (the Ghent polyptych altarpiece is pictured) and Klimt are as much a part of Flanders as the desire for pleasure and good food. It is no wonder then that the creative Flemings also draw comics, brew 100 different beers like Westvieteren as begun by Trappist monks, invent chocolates, cook masterfully, and of course make the best French fries. Maps, stunning full page colour photos. Text in six languages. Softback, 17 x 20.8cm, 480pp.