I woke up at a rather early-ish hour on Monday (March 15th) because I had the following train tickets at hand:

Outward journey: Paris Nord to Brussels Midi
Inbound journey: Brussels Midi to Paris Nord

Basically, I ended up taking advantage of the Eurostar and bought tickets for a day trip to Brussels! An hour and a half later, I was no longer in France. Purse in tow and camera in hand, I made my way out of Gare Midi and walked my way up Anspachlaan, the main road in downtown Brussels. Along the way, I came across Bourse/Beurs which is basically the stock exchange.

A lot prettier than the NYSE, if I do say so myself. And that was just the side view.

Anyway, a few turns eastward, and I finally got to Manneken Pis, which translates to um, “little man urinating.” If London has Big Ben and Paris has the Eiffel Tower, then Brussels has Manneken Pis. I remember when I was younger, my dad came back from a business trip in Belgium and brought back a wine bottle opener of the Manneken Pis with a strategically-placed corkscrew. So I suppose that was my first impression of the much-beloved icon. Anywho, I digress. I was expecting some huge, elaborate fountain but it was actually quite small — it barely took up a tiny corner of the street block. And no, that’s not what she said. For such a little guy, he drew a quite a large crowd.

Apparently there is a Janneken Pis (a female counterpart!) out there, but I didn’t get to visit. Maybe next time!

A few blocks north and I made it to Grote Markt or Grand Place, which is pretty much the main square of Brussels. Again, to make an analogy, Times Square is to New York as Piccadilly Circus is to London as Grand Place is to Brussels. Except Grand Place doesn’t have the garish neon lights or absurdly large billboards; instead, it has some of the most beautiful architecture, dating back to the 17th century. Suffice to say, the buildings definitely brought out my inner art history nerd.

This is the Brussels Town Hall, which is situated in Grand Place. Ugh, the details are totally mind-blowing.

These buildings also surround the perimeter of Grand Place; they used to be guildhalls back in the day, but now they mostly consist of different shops and boutiques.

Because food always manages to worm its way into my entries, I’ll talk about brunch that day. I’d totally talk about breakfast, except breakfast was a mere croissant and a coffee on the train. How exciting. Anyway — brunch. Brunch was had at the flagship Le Pain Quotidien. Basically, Le Pain Quotidien (or Het Dagelijks Brood) is a chain of restaurant-bakery-lovechildren with some of the most fabulous baked goods out there. The scones and spreads are incredibly delicious in all their sweet, fattening glory, and they can make some amazing tartines (open-faced sandwiches). There are a couple locations scattered around New York and I’ve even been to the one in London, but when I found myself at the Grand Sablon neighborhood, the all-too-familiar sign of Le Pain Quotidien came calling and I figured what the hell, might as well dine at the original!

Raspberry limonade!

My boeuf basilic tartine: beef tartare, pesto, parmesan, and cilantro on wheat bread! The beef tartare initially threw me off guard, but I really liked it! Might have been the pesto that sealed the deal.

After brunch, I walked over to the Grand Palais. The gates were locked (thwarted!), but I was still able to snap a couple pictures, like the one above.

One of my favorite aspects of Brussels is the architecture, by far. Brussels is so photogenic; it’s hard to take a shitty picture of the city when there’s so much art nouveau. And the detail! So, so stunning and picturesque.

I went on a Monday, so nearly all the museums were closed. I was a little disappointed when I found this out, but I’m kind of glad, because I spent most of the day walking around and ooh-ing and ah-ing over the amazing architecture and I know I probably would have spent the entire day in the Magritte or the Horta museum and missed the train. So there!

By the late afternoon, I was hungry yet again, and I got the moules-frites at Chez-Leon. Three words: mussels and fries.

So basically, I had this huge platter of fried mussels and a helping of fries on the side … I’ll let the photo speak for itself. After this meal, I was reminded once again that the best comas are food comas.

Oh, and I also had a glass of lambic raspberry beer! I love beer but holy mother, raspberry beer seriously tastes like juice. Brussels definitely has some amazing-tasting beer, and I ended up buying some bottles of Trappist beer and lambic beer (cassis and apple flavored!) to bring back home.

I then went back to Gare Midi, my newly-bought chocolates, pralines, and beer in tow as I headed back to good ol’ Paris. All in all, a good day.

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