William Cook

Antwerp

It combines Dutch can-do and Catholic joie de vivre – just don’t try to speak French…

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. French-speaking Wallonia used to be the richest part of Belgium. Belgium’s Flemings were the poor relations. Now it’s the other way around.

Most sightseers make tracks for Antwerp’s historic centre — the Gothic cathedral, the baroque town hall. I like to head in the opposite direction, into the Jewish quarter. Here, in the sleepy sidestreets off Pelikaanstraat, is the centre of the world’s diamond trade. Bearded men in black hats shuffle past, minding their own business. Between the drab shopfronts of the diamond dealers are kosher butchers and bakeries. I stop off at Hoffy’s, a Yiddish deli run by the Hoffman brothers, big smiling men in skullcaps. The food is hearty, the service perfunctory. I’m the only Gentile here.

Beyond the railway bridge is Zurenborg, Antwerp’s Art Nouveau district. Here everything seems surreal.

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