Best café in Europe: La Fleur en Papier Doré in Brussels
'9.7 out of 10!' The European Bar Guide gives the maximum score to this artistic and literary meeting place of yesteryear, where today regulars, young people and tourists come to enjoy the interior, the atmosphere, the history, the beers, and occasionally a touch of culture.
The current operators took over La Fleur en Papier Doré in 2023. Little did they know that they would receive this award! They were told by tourists who follow the website of The European Bar Guide and congratulated them on their award. Visitor numbers and sales went up promptly.
Focus On Belgium would like to take the opportunity to dive into the fascinating past of this 17th-century house with its glass-panelled door and plastered, white-painted façade with plinth at 55 Rue des Alexiens, a good 500 m from Brussels-Central station. Especially the ironwork façade decoration in the form of flowering branches provides a distinctive touch.
A façade plaque recalls that the Sisters of Saint Vincent de Paul had their first establishment in Brussels there, in 1843. After the departure of the nuns, the building was given a commercial purpose, as an inn. The West Flemish anarchist poet, philosopher, art dealer and theatre maker Geert van Bruaene operated it from 1944 and permanently renamed the Café des Artistes to La Fleur en Papier Doré. This flamboyant eccentric had good connections in the art world. When he operated the beer tap, it was a meeting place for a host of painters and writers of renown. Too many to mention, but here is a selection: surrealists René Magritte, Max Ernst and Louis Scutenaire, singer Jacques Brel, Pierre Alechinsky and Christian Dotremont of the Cobra movement, the editors of the avant-garde art magazine Tijd en Mens, the father of Art Brut Jean Dubuffet, writers Hugo Claus, Louis Paul Boon and Simon Vinkenoog, and the spiritual father of Tintin, Hergé. During its heyday, van Bruaene organised 'poetic meetings' on the first floor every three weeks, and after his death in 1964, the poetry evenings continued. Meanwhile, the establishment, with its old wooden tables, chairs, benches and chequerboard floor tiles sprinkled with sand, had been filled with photographs, drawings, paintings, all sorts of framed artefacts, sayings, and even an authentic manuscript by Guido Gezelle – once totalling more than 350 pieces. La Fleur en Papier Doré has been a protected heritage site since 1997.
Why not dream away over a glass of beer, a book or a concert, or catch an animated chat with a like-minded or dissenting global citizen? When you are there, check whether the 200-year-old Leuven stove is still there, with the aphorism Ole com bove ('Oil comes on top') in golden letters on the mantelpiece above it, or somewhere else Every person – or was it 'man'? – is entitled to 24 hours of freedom a day! Just so you know...