Antwerp

Napoleon didn’t think much of Antwerp. ‘Scarcely a European city at all,’ he scoffed. If only he could see it today. Ten years ago, Antwerp felt provincial. Now it feels like the capital of an (almost) independent state. ‘Jardin Zoologique’ it says outside the zoo, but that’s the only French signage you’ll see in this resolutely Flemish city. When they built the zoo, in 1843, Belgium was only 13 years old, and French was the official language throughout this mongrel nation. Now it only survives on a few old war memorials. ‘You’re in Flanders now,’ locals tell you, if you try to speak to them in French.

Each time I come here, Antwerp seems more estranged from Belgium. It’s barely 30 miles from Brussels, but alighting at Antwerp’s palatial railway station you can tell you’ve crossed a virtual border, between Gallic and Teutonic Europe. The Flemings have founded a country within a country, and Antwerp is its hub.