L'Îlot Vert

Head to the city of Liège (40 minutes) for the Picassos and Magrittes in La Boverie museum, and the views down to the River Meuse from the top of the steep Montagne de Bueren steps. When you’re done with sightseeing, find a café terrace on Place du Marché and re-energise over a coffee and waffle, or head to the lively bars on Rue du Carré for a few Belgian beers. Hop across the Dutch border into Maastricht (35 minutes) to admire the clutch of historic churches, museums and gabled townhouses, or have a wander around the pretty Sint Servaasbrug district, spanning the Meuse and full of cobbled streets filled with pavement cafés. Military enthusiasts can tour the vast, late-18th-century Fort St Pieter with its network of subterranean tunnels. There’s more recent war heritage to witness at the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery and Memorial (10 minutes), where nearly 8,000 US soldier victims of World War II are buried in neat graves topped with white wooden crosses.