Damme

A quiet agricultural village with a population of about 10,000 Flemings, Damme lies in a peaceful polder landscape of waving fields and far horizons. Walking its streets today feels much as it would have centuries ago. If you take the miniature paddle steamer Lamme Goedzak, which travels along a canal lined with slender poplars, the town is a half hour from Brugge. You could even hike or bike the distance along a common canal path.

Damme owes its place in history to a tidal wave that ravaged the coast in 1134 and opened an inlet from the Zwin to the environs of Brugge. The little town grew up as a fishing village until a canal was dug to connect Damme to Brugge. The former settlement was soon a key port and snapped up exclusive rights to import such treasured commodities as Bordeaux wine and Swedish herring. The "Maritime Law of Damme" thus became the standard for Hanseatic merchants. Later, when the Zwin channel silted up, Damme's fortunes slowly declined; however, its Burgundian architecture remains well-preserved. Today, the town rides a literary wave; it has a large number of antiquarian bookshops and market stalls offering books in a variety of languages. There's an added lure of good restaurants and cafés.