Beers
It's impossible to leave Belgium without taking at least one of the 300 local beers with you. Many consider Trappist beers to be the best, but IPAs are also very popular, as are Chimay bleue and Orval Abbey beer, which are highly sought-after hoppy golden potions. If you don't know what to choose, treat yourself to a "beer meter", offering several different samples of some of the country's finest beers. You'll find them in specialized stores near tourist centers, or in the many breweries you can visit. Beer stores also sell collections of decorative beer glasses, which make great gifts to take home with you, as long as you pack them well in your suitcase to avoid breaking them! Be sure to pack all your precious beverages in the hold if you're flying, and bear in mind the weight of the bottles. They may be heavy and fragile, but they're worth their weight in hopped gold.
Chocolates
Pralines and chocolate are perhaps the most obvious products to bring home and share with friends and family. Houses of Belgian chocolatiers flourish in every town, each with their own specialities. Some of the best-known names have stores in every Belgian city. The most famous are Galler, but also Neuhaus, Corné and Léonidas.
Today, a number of small-scale creators produce exclusively organic and/or fair-trade chocolate sweets. You'll find them listed in each city's self-indulgence section. Don't forget this option for original gifts.
Other Belgian sweets
Speculoos (in cookie or paste form) is also a must. You'll find tins in supermarkets, but for a gift, it's best to go to a delicatessen to buy some. You'll find them, along with almond and Greek-style breads, at Maison Dandoy, in Brussels and Antwerp. If you're already a connoisseur of Belgian products, you can go to the next level of subtlety and buy couques de Dinant, a kind of shaped, unbreakable cookie that can be sucked instead of crunched, or cuberdons (round-tipped pyramid-shaped sweets in a variety of colors). Last but not least, for those who love to cook, Liège syrup cannot be overlooked, especially as it is difficult to find abroad. It can be used to make the famous boulets liégeois and many other recipes.
Some books
If you're passionate about art, and especially Flemish painting, don't miss out on a beautiful book explaining the works of the great masters of this discipline, when the Antwerp school was a hub of Baroque Flemish painting. You'll find illustrated volumes in French by Jan van Eyck, Jérôme Bosch and Pierre-Paul Rubens or Pieter Brueghel the Elder. Comic book fans will be hard pressed to resist the temptation of adding to their collection. There's a specialized area around boulevard Anspach and chaussée de Wavre in Brussels where you can rummage around and find what you're looking for.
From the lace
If you have a grandmother who spends her evenings crooning in front of the TV, then her gift is just right: Belgian lace! A true ancestral savoir-faire.
Duchess of Brussels lace owes its name to Duchess Marie-Henriette de Brabant, who was very fond of it. A lace reputed to be finer and richer than Bruges lace. Yet it's Bruges that lays claim to the title of "City of Lace", based on the legend that lace was created here by a young girl to whom the Virgin revealed the secret of the art. Other legends from countries all over the world tell the story of the creation of lace. Sometimes, from one town to another in the same country, the legend differs: the one told in Bruges is not the one told in Brussels.
It's impossible to say exactly when this technique was invented. It probably dates from the 16th century, and appeared at roughly the same time in Italy and Flanders. The manufacturing method is thought to have been brought from the East to the West by the Crusaders. Another similar technique already existed: passementerie, practiced by men with gold, copper or silver thread. In the 17th and 18th centuries, growing demand made lace the only export product in the wake of the Flemish textile crisis.
Most of the work was done by housewives (in beguinages, for example) or the destitute. In 1738, Antwerp employed a quarter of its working population in lacemaking, including children. In the 19th and 20th centuries, lace manufacturing in Flanders was very important, and Bruges became an essential economic hub. However, during this period, cotton thread replaced linen thread, and industrial production dealt the final blow to this craft.
The Centre de la dentelle is located in Bruges, in a Maison-Dieu founded in the 15thcentury . The former family home is home to the lacemakers' workshops, always ready to give a demonstration under the curious gaze of visitors. In the store, you'll find all the tools and materials you need to learn this delicate art.
Other towns such as Mechelen and Binche also boast quality lace.
Various handicrafts
You'll also find copper, bronze and brassware from Dinant, porcelain from Tournai, blue stoneware pottery from La Roche, earthenware and ceramics from La Louvière..
Flea markets are also popular (don't miss the one on Place du Jeu-de-Balle in Brussels or the Vrijdagmarkt in Antwerp). If you like to bargain-hunt, you may be able to find a few antique handicrafts.
Luxury products
Finally, if your budget allows, some luxury items are worth a shopping trip. Antwerp's jewelry stores are the place to cut the diamond of your dreams. They are open every day near Central Station, in the well-known diamond district. Also in Antwerp, you'll find the boutiques of the kings and queens of Belgian fashion: Dries Van Noten's Modepaleis or Ann Demeulemeester's store.
Brussels has an abundance of boutiques of all kinds, including the world's oldest luxury leather goods house, Delvaux.
