Place du Chatelain

The place to be on a Wednesday evening in Brussels is the relatively small area situated around the Place Chatelain. The Wednesdays are market days and from early afternoon people are arriving from almost all Brussels to join in the calm and relaxing atmosphere in the surroundings of the square.

The market offers good possibilities to taste different local specialties but also food like grilled chickens, Vietnamese dishes, soups, tarts, oysters; which is my favourite on the market. Personally I really enjoy coming at the oysters stand and receive a smile from Cathy and go for 6 or 12 oysters together with a glass of white wine and just join the conversations.

The area around the market is loaded with wonderful small restaurants of all kinds and they are almost all full every Wednesday. I have been in a few of them and I have never been disappointed.

The time when the market is closing does actually have the best ambiance; at this point everybody had a couple of drinks and the talks are getting more passionate. The most popular place to be at this time is the Café Chatelain which is situated on the middle of the square. Sometime a couple of hundreds of people are standing outside talking and drinking the odd beer, wine or G&T.