Friday, March 4, 2011

Best Bakery in Brussels

Yesterday, my morning student cancelled her lesson last-minute. Giving me the perfect opportunity to go to a place that had been on my “to-eat” list for a long time.

The destination : Charli, rue Sainte Catherine 34, 1000 Brussels.

On my arrival, the windows were a bit damped – but I soon found out the reason for this. The bakery (I mean the real workshop) is in the shop itself! Behind a glass wall, you can see the bakers at work: making croissants, taking freshly baked sugar breads out of the oven, preparing the dough, etc, etc. I took a seat on one of the high bar stools facing the workshop directly. So, needless to say, I didn’t read a single article in my newspaper. Instead, I just watched this very interesting “reality TV” , while enjoying my pain au chocolat, and one of the best hot coco’s I’ve ever had in this city.

It’s a great place to start the day, or to take a break and watch your daily bread being made. Of course, the earlier you go, the more activity you’ll be able to enjoy. Doors open at 7.30 AM. You won’t regret that half hour you got up earlier!

Oh, and while we’re doing a “Best of”, the best public toilets in Brussels are the ones in metro-station Louise. They are extremely clean. The lady even cleans with some kind of strong antibacterial soap, and puts fresh rose petals on the sinks! All this for 0,40 Euro!
(this kind of knowledge just comes with being pregnant, and having to go every 10 minutes, so hell, better share it!)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That bakery is quite nice but a bit expensive - so I always hopped a bit further down across the square to Rue De Flandre to a sandwich shop run by one woman (well, I only ever saw one woman...) and she had some delicious pastries as well. Across the corner across from De Markten is also a lovely sandwich and cheese shop.

Seriously miss that part of brussels in particular!

Also, my favourite place to go to the bathroom in Brussels was the library... but I think it's being renovated right now. Hehe.

N said...

Hi there! Those two sandwich shops are indeed pretty good! And the toilets in the (temporary) library building have been discovered by many,it seems - so they're a bit smelly and, well, disgusting sometimes. Still, lately, I've been more to the library "to go", than for books :D