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Sunday, January 28, 2007

Brussels, second hand.

There are many reasons to enter a second-hand shop: Most of them offer a plethora of old, weird, rare or just interesting things that you would never find in the department stores of Rue Neuve. They are cheap enough to equip an entire household just for the couple of months you might be spending in Brussels. And with them it is easy to follow part two of the environmentalists' mantra of reduce-reuse-recycle.

The first place you should visit is Petits Riens in Rue Americaine (Mo-Fr 12-17:30, Sa 10-13). Basically, you can find everything here: Cutlery and furniture, books and decoration, toys and clothes. Proceeds go to social projects, and you can also donate stuff you do not need anymore. A second option for furniture is Troc .

My favourite place for second-hand books is Pele-Mele on Blvd Lemonnier (Mo-Sa 10/18:30). Pele-Mele is vast, and offers novels, comics, textbooks, magazines, maps, CDs and videos in all languages you can think of. Another good thing: They will pay you money if you bring your things.

If you don't want to buy books, you can head to the Hoofdstedelijke Openbare Bibliotheek next to La Monnaie (Mo+Sa 12-17, Tu-Fr 10-20). Yes, they have a lot of books in English and other languages (though Dutch prevails), and membership is terribly cheap with 5 EUR per year. Ah, and they do music and film too.

More tips? Share them in the comments.

1 comment:

Wiebke Herding said...

Some additions: For second hand cameras, try Campion (Rue St Boniface 15).

My current favourite second hand clothes shop is Le Temps de Cerises (Chaussée d'Ixelles 192). All clothes are carefully hand-selected, and if you bring one or two good pieces of your own, you might even get paid.