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Tues-Sat 11am-6pm; ?5. Metro: Gare Centrale . Strolling south from the Grand-Place along rue de l'Etuve, turn left up rue du Lombard and you'll soon reach place Saint Jean , where the memorial in the middle of the square commemorates the remarkable Gabrielle Petit . Equipped with a formidable - some say photographic - memory, Petit played a leading role in the Resistance movement during the German occupation of World War I. Caught, she refused to appeal even though as a woman her sentence would almost certainly have been commuted. Instead, she declared that she would show the Germans how a Belgian woman could die. And that is precisely what she did: the Germans shot her by firing squad in 1916. Just to the south of the square, place de la Vieille-Halle aux Bles holds the Fondation internationale Jacques Bret , a small but inventive museum celebrating the life and times of the Belgian singer Jacques Brel (1933-1978). Brel became famous in the 1960s as a singer of mournful chansons about death and love. The museum begins with a false lift that actually doesn't move at all - despite the sounds - and beyond you can hear Brel pouring out his feelings on a mock-up stage and in a replica bar with juke box. It's all good fun (if you like this type of music), though the labelling of the exhibits is only in French and Flemish. From the square, it's a short walk south to boulevard de l'Empereur , a busy carriageway that disfigures this part of the centre. Across the boulevard, you'll spy the crumbling brickwork of La Tour Anneessens , a chunky remnant of the medieval city wall, while to the south gleams the recently restored Notre Dame de la Chapelle.
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