BRUGGES

Brugges, also called the Venice of the North, is a little village just over the Belgian border, that has been frozen in time - much to the delight of hundreds of tourists who flock to the town for their fix of lace, chocolate and ye olde authentic horse and carriage rides (this town probably has the highest carriage per person ratio of anywhere in the world outside of Amish settlements).

I haven't been here since 2004, when I was travelling solo through the area. Only a short distance from Lille, but it has been nigh on impossible to get Monsieur away from the computer for long enough of a weekend to convince him to go there (one of the downsides of not owning a car nor having the coordination required to drive on the other side of the road is being annoyingly reliant on your partner). Well, for once I managed to drag him away and we headed over for the afternoon.

As usual it was packed to the hilt with the expected tourists, but to me it's still a fantastic little spot to wile away a sunny Saturday afternoon, provided you can find a carpark.

Though for some reason I haven't yet discovered there's a remarkable number of often-sinister crescent moon emblems around the town...