Brussels

Brussels gets unfairly dismissed. People think of it as a city of bureaucrats and EU buildings, which misses almost everything that makes it genuinely remarkable. The Grand-Place is one of the most beautiful squares in Europe, baroque guild houses surrounding a Gothic town hall, all built in the late 17th century after the French destroyed the originals. Arriving in the Grand-Place for the first time, from one of the narrow side streets, is one of the great reveal moments in European travel.

The Art Nouveau architecture of Brussels is extraordinary and almost completely unnoticed by the visitors who come for the chocolate and the waffles. Victor Horta, who invented the style, built his house here, now the Horta Museum, and there are Art Nouveau buildings on almost every street if you know what you're looking at. The organic lines, the wrought iron, the extraordinary use of natural light, it is a completely distinctive architectural language that Brussels developed and exported to the world.

Ixelles and Saint-Gilles are the neighbourhoods I love most in Brussels, south of the centre, more residential, full of excellent restaurants and the best concentration of Art Nouveau buildings in the city. The Matongé area in Ixelles is the heart of Brussels's African community, vibrant and colourful in a way that gives the city a dimension most visitors never discover. Brussels rewards the person who gets off the tourist circuit.