If you have read my museum suggestions you may have noticed that I love to discover Belgian jewels of museums, galleries and parks. And here is another one, the Bakery Museum in Veurne not far from the coast. It is located in the original Poor House built in 1314. After many changes through history, it was opened as the current museum in 1985 housing the most important Flemish collection about baking. This original location has since been nearly swallowed up by an idyllic band of motorways, heavy lorry traffic and modern buildings but it is still a green and pretty place for the museum, workshop, playground, cafeteria and even an old windmill.

In the museum you are guided through a series of rooms all dealing with different activities of making sweets, cookies The Confectionary Room Waffle-making (speculoos!), marzipan, chocolate items including moulds, for example for Easter bunnies, waffles, ice cream and, of course, bread of different kinds.

I used the excellent English printed visitor’s guide going from room to room to understand the multitude of tools and machinery. I had no idea how complicated some of these processes are. I will certainly look at the obligatory speculoos coming with each cup of coffee with different eyes.

The museum is an easy place to get around with enough places to sit and rest. At the end, I walked by a baking class of 6 to 7- year olds with chef hats and aprons who had clearly great fun making something I couldn’t quite recognise. I left the museum with a very tasty sourdough bread which had just come out of the oven. A lovely place to visit with or without children.

Open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

https://www.bakkerijmuseum.be/fr/home/

Photo by Angela Oestmann