Tournai's Notre Dame cathedral is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, an extraordinary, large and pretty rare example of Romanesque architecture this far north of Ravenna. It's not in the best shape these days but it's well worth a visit. I went there on a bitterly cold day on my way back from Lille a couple of years ago and was most annoyed to have forgotten my camera.

Like all great Romanesque edifices, the simplicity of the decoration is surprising given the hatful of Gothic flamboyance for which Belgium is perhaps better known.

It has nonetheless endured the imposition of a rather daft looking Gothic choir at one end, while the West front retains its splendid original form.
Work began on Notre Dame in 1147. To put that in perspective, in the same year the Second of the Nine Crusades got started, the little town of Moscow was mentioned for the first time in written history and the temple complex of Angkor Wat in Cambodia was almost complete.
