In the Flemish plain, 9 km of sandy beaches of Dunkirk Malo-les-Bains, 15 km from the Belgian border and 40 km from the mouth of the Channel Tunnel, Bergues opens...
Yet fully corseted walls, whether medieval or due to the talent of the great Vauban, the town is nestled at the foot of its belfry, a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. On the hill overlooking the city and gave it its name, the ruins of an ancient Benedictine abbey seem to stand guard while his museum Mount of Piety unveils some of its rich collections in a beautiful setting brick the warm yellow... Whether at the level of its facades, its places, its traditions, Bergues St. Winoc is one of those Flemish towns on which time seems to have no control. Its rich heritage, gastronomy, its friendliness and its environment will retain the tourist passing through "the other Bruges of Flanders"...
As in the old days, the city is punctuated with accents of its counting up chime every quarter hour or when it sounds its fifty bells for the Monday morning market or the traditional festivals such as Carnival (Sunday in Lent), the Palm (major agricultural show on the Sunday before Easter), the fire of Saint John (around June 24) or during night shows "Amen Thyl!" late April and "The Legend of the Old Dog Player" in late September. In summer, with "The most beautiful Sundays Bergues", free concerts and a handicraft market occupy the main square of the city and animating every Sunday in July and August.
Since the film "Welcome to the Sticks" in 2008, Bergues is a stronghold of French and European tourism. The Ch'ti Tour, tour organized by the Tourist Office, revived this particular time in the life of the city during the shooting, in the footsteps of Dany Boon.
Many restaurants offer local specialties: cheese Bergues, sausage or Bergues Potsch'vleech, sprinkled as it should be a good beer in the country.
Very close to Bergues is the discovery of Flanders, this flat country where the flower market towns with brick walls and huge churches of this land and canals that crisscross watergangs and whose paths dotted with chapels or small bridges, sometimes even leading to some few mills or taverns...