The first to settle on the banks of the Senne river were merchants, travelling between German cities and Ghent and Bruges. No wonder the area turned into a market! Meanwhile, wordly leaders and the clergy freferred to settle high on the hills of Brussels.  Not only was it dryer, people would literally have had to look up to see their princes.  Today still, this is where power resides.

Join a Brussels Walks guide and discover no less than three parliaments, the royal palace and Royal square (called place des Armes in Thackeray’s Vanity Fair), the beautiful Museum square, magnificent Art Nouveau architecture, the Royal Galleries - a first in Europe - , the Grand'Place, the beauty of which we owe to ... a shelling by French artillery and the inevitable Manneken Pis.

You wonder what this has to do with a bestselling novel?  Come and find out!