Baazar Trottoir : See Brussels different
Bazaar Trottoir invites you to experience Brussels the way the city really moves: from the pavement, at walking pace, with open eyes and plenty of curiosity. No postcard routes, no polished tourist narratives, but stories that live in the streets themselves.
Through guided walks around street art, beer, entrepreneurship, sustainability and neighbourhood life, Bazaar Trottoir explores the city in an alternative, human-scale way. Each walk is an invitation to slow down, look closer, and connect with places, with people, and with the often invisible dynamics that shape the city.
Neighbourhood walks are an essential part of this approach. Rather than focusing solely on the historic centre, Bazaar Trottoir deliberately steps into areas that are less obvious but deeply telling. The neighbourhood around Tour & Taxis is one of those places: a zone in full transformation, where industrial heritage, new urban functions and emerging ecosystems coexist. It’s exactly the kind of urban laboratory we love to walk through, together with a group.
Bazaar Trottoir was founded in 2019 by Valérie De Ketelaere. What started in Brussels has since grown beyond the city, with walks now also taking place in Antwerp and Ostend. Today, a team of 15 enthusiastic ambassadors—guides with a strong connection to their city lead visitors through streets and stories with knowledge, humour and a genuine love for urban life.
The early days weren’t easy. Shortly after the launch, the COVID pandemic hit. Walking tours came to a sudden halt. Instead of pausing everything, Bazaar Trottoir experimented. Guides went digital, and online beer tastings were organised among them tastings featuring beers from La Source. Even at a distance, the goal remained the same: creating moments of connection and shared discovery.
Sustainability, circular economy and social innovation have since become one of the core pillars of our work. For us, these themes are not abstract concepts or trends, but very tangible realities that are already shaping the city. They reveal who is rethinking production, consumption and collaboration. Who is experimenting with new models. Who is trying sometimes quietly, often with limited visibility to build a better city, or even a better world.
What fascinates us most are the small ecosystems. Places where different actors support each other, share resources and ideas, and where waste becomes a starting point rather than an end. These initiatives are not always easy to spot. Often they are led by pioneers who don’t necessarily seek the spotlight. Bazaar Trottoir enjoys doing the opposite: slowing down, listening, and bringing those stories together into a coherent walk.
Make it stand out
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
That’s also why Fermentastic feels like a natural match. Fermentation is, at its core, about transformation, patience and collaboration with living systems. It’s about processes you can’t fully control, but can guide with care. The same applies to cities. By including partners like La Source and places like BE-HERE in our walks, we can show fermentation not just as a technique, but as a lens to understand urban change.
With Bazaar Trottoir, walking becomes a way to read the city differently. Not as a finished product, but as a living organism full of microbes, ideas, experiments and encounters. And always, always, from the pavement up.
