The Leonidas chain was founded by a Greek-American businessman in 1913 and is now Belgium's most popular chocolate maker. Run by Jo Draps, third in a line of family chocolatiers, the little museum lets visitors dip into a fountain pouring pure chocolate and has a master chocolate-maker on hand to show how it's done. Planet Chocolate's Frank Duval says love of chocolate has become an essential part of the Belgian character, helping to bind together this little nation divided by language between Flemings and Walloons. Take a bite, find out why. By train, the Belgian capital is 1 hour and 20 minutes from Paris, less than three hours from London, Amsterdam or Cologne.
Freeways also connect Brussels to major cities in neighboring nations.
Downtown Brussels is compact and most major sites and leading chocolate stores can be reached on foot. Brussels is officially a bilingual city and all street signs and public notices are in French and Dutch. English is widely spoken. Most big hotels offer substantial reductions on weekends, when prices can be around half the standard rates. A stone's throw from the Grand Place, the Amigo is a favorite of visiting European politicians and has its own Neuhaus chocolate shop.