The Lower Town -- The Basse Ville, the core area of the old center, has at its heart the Grand-Place and its environs. Two of the most traveled lanes nearby are restaurant-lined rue des Bouchers and Petite rue des Bouchers, part of an area known as the Ilôt Sacré (Sacred Islet). A block from the Grand-Place is the classical colonnaded Bourse (Stock Exchange). A few blocks north, on place de la Monnaie, is the Monnaie opera house and ballet theater, named after the coin mint that once stood here. Brussels's busiest shopping street, pedestrianized rue Neuve, starts from place de la Monnaie and runs north for several blocks. Just north of the center lies Gare du Nord and nearby place Rogier. Central Brussels also includes the Marché-aux-Poissons (Fish Market) district.
The Upper Town -- The Haute Ville lies east of and uphill from the Grand-Place, along rue Royale and rue de la Régence and abutting the unpretentious, working-class Marolles district. Lying between the Palais de Justice and Gare du Midi, the Marolles has cozy cafes, drinking-man's bars, and inexpensive restaurants; its denizens even speak their own dialect. The Upper Town is spread along an escarpment east of the center, where you find the second great square, place du Grand-Sablon, and its tranquil little neighbor, place du Petit-Sablon, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts, and the Royal Palace. If you head southwest and cross the broad boulevard de Waterloo, where you find the most exclusive designer stores, you come to place Louise. From here, Brussels's most fashionable thoroughfare, avenue Louise, runs south all the way to a large wooded park called the Bois de la Cambre. Both main streets are flanked by attractive residential side streets.
Beyond the center things start to get hazier. On either side of avenue Louise, a chic boulevard south of the city center, are the classy districts of Ixelles and Uccle; they're both good areas for restaurants and shopping and both border the wide green spaces of the Bois de la Cambre and the Forêt de Soignes. East of this zone, the Ixelles district, near the Free University, has many casual, inexpensive restaurants, bars, and cafes.
East of the city center lies a part of Brussels whose denizens are regarded by many Bruxellois with the same suspicion they might apply to just-landed extraterrestrials. I refer, of course, to the European Union district around place Schuman, where the European Commission, Parliament, and Council of Ministers buildings jostle for space in a warren of offices populated by civil servants, journalists, and lobbyists (the area also is home to a wealth of restaurants and cafes that cater to Euro-appetites). A quaint old neighborhood was made to disappear to make way for these noble edifices. North of Ixelles the modern European Union district surrounds place Schuman.
In the north of the city (and something of a leap of the imagination) is the Bruparck. Inside this recreation complex you find the Mini-Europe theme park; the 26-screen Kinepolis multiplex movie theater; a made-to-order village with stores, cafes, and restaurants; and the Océade water recreation center. Beside it is the Atomium, Brussels Planetarium, the Roi Baudoin Soccer Stadium, and the Parc des Expositions congress center.
