Bruges

366 marches étroites montent le clocher penché de 83 m pour le panorama classique sur les toits rouges — et, si vous le chronométrez bien, le carillon de 47 cloches jouant sous vos pieds.

Thirty minutes on the 'reien' past hidden gardens, humpback bridges and façades you can't see from any street — the one paid classic that's genuinely worth it.

The two showpiece squares: the Markt with its guild houses and the Burg with the gilded Gothic city hall — 700 years of Flemish civic pride in a two-minute walk.

A double chapel on the Burg — sober Romanesque below, blazing neo-Gothic above — guarding a relic of Christ's blood venerated here since the 12th century.

Six centuries of Belgian art in a compact museum, anchored by the Flemish Primitives: Van Eyck's Madonna with Canon van der Paele and Memling at their absolute peak.

The white-washed 13th-century beguinage with its poplar courtyard, next to the swan-filled 'Lake of Love' — the most serene corner of the city, minutes from the crowds.

A theatrical, film-and-scent journey back to Bruges in 1435, plus a VR flight over the medieval city and a tower with a free-with-ticket view over the Markt.