Hidden gems

Weirdest pub . . . bar none:YOU'VE BEEN around, you've done things you might not tell your mother about and you've seen things you certainly wouldn't tell your kids about, so it's reasonable to assume that you've seen all the bars there are to see: the swish ones, the underground ones, the dive ones and the slinky-kinky ones.

But then, on a visit to Brussels, you’re walking, along Rue de la Violette during the day, you’re looking in through the window of the bar known as Goupil le Fol, and you’re thinking: this one looks like fun. And then, the morning after the night before, you’re thinking: what an incredibly weird, fantastic place.

Goupil le Fol is a three-storey bar housed in what was once a brothel. As you walk from the street into the downstairs section you’ll almost certainly want to retrace your steps to the street and go elsewhere. But then you sit down, look around and realise that there’s nowhere else you’d rather be for the next two hours.

There’s no getting away from the fact that Goupil le Fol comes across as a mix of an opium den and a bric-a- brac minimart; a Wurlitzer is playing Edith Piaf and Jacques Brel; French books are nailed to the walls and the ceiling is covered by layers of vinyl records.

The customers are a blend of goateed intellectuals wearing New Order T-shirts, locals, weekenders from England and people hiding from the tourist trappings around Grand Place. (That’d be me, then.)

The sections upstairs might not be as funky an experience, but there are still enough lurid artworks, oddities – stuffed foxes, buckets of freshly plucked roses and lilies – and comfortable sofas to lure you into staying for another beer or two.

Goupil le Fol, 22 Rue de la Violette, Brussels, Belgium, 00-32-2-5111396

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