The city centre from the roof of the Bourse

Mémoires coloniales

Diversion signs – not confusing at all if you live in Brussels

Schaerneval, 2024

Forbidden pleasures – stealing a picture of the king’s geraniums in the Royal Greenhouses in Laeken

Café life in the Marolles

Walkway over the European Parliament’s Esplanade Solidarność

Watching the parade – social housing, quartier Nord

Bar, centre – since closed down

Brocante, Ixelles – The brocante, a kind of communal garage sale, is to Belgium what cricket is to England: an activity adored by locals but utterly incomprehensible to non-natives.

Garage

Palais de Justice – it has been sinking under its own enormous weight into Brussels’ sandy soil since it was completed in 1883. Renovation began in 1984, but progress has been so slow that the scaffolding in which the building is permanently encased has itself needed renovation. Seriously.

Hôtel Hannon, one of Brussels’ most gorgeous art nouveau buildings.

‘Press hard or knock on the window.’

Seen from Parc Léopold, the European Parliament complex appears to have invaded a rural idyl

Bar, Ixelles

The back of the Lycée Émile Jacqmain, in the Parc Léopold. The European Parliament can be seen reflected in the windows.

Entrance to the Galerie Ravenstein from Rue Ravenstein.

Boy playing with a ball in front of the Église Saint-Jean-Baptiste au Béguinage.

Place Flagey, 2007

‘Dis-donc, c’est grand ça !’ ‘Eh oui, et profond.’ ‘Qu’est-ce qu’on fait alors ?’

Disused railway line near the Gare de Josaphat, 2009

Resting by the canal

Construction site near the Gare du Nord.