Trying to peg down Hasselt is a tough job. Its split personality escapes all cliché. Life is a bit slower-paced in this small city, but Hasselt is extremely posh as well. Even Antwerp’s fashionistas descend on Hasselt’s shopping streets like little ants. Clothes and shoes, preferably by local designers, is what they are looking for. Names and labels, darling. If Eddy Monsoon had to pick a Belgian town to live in, she’d do great in Hasselt.

The hippest, most stylish participants of national events invariably drove in from Limburg. Be it for a beauty contest, Gothic get-together or a culinary TV show, these youngsters look the part. At the cemetery, adults die smiling, dressed in a tuxedo, while the infants fly off to heaven in golden dresses.

Yet even with Hasselt being so highly mainstream, so desperate to get things aesthetically right, there’s definitely a whiff of anarchy in the air. Just like art, which isn’t made in posh galleries, life also needs a jumbled studio. So while at one end of the Kanaalkom, Hasselt’s marina, arise the new shiny blocks of flats (“The Blue Boulevard”), the other side hasn’t been touched. The abandoned site of the former gelatine factory has become a kind of “free zone” for adventurous artists and architects, including top-rank exhibition by the local CIAP collec- tive.

Hasselt’s proud. Of being the home of the well-known 19th-century priest Valentinus Paquay, better known as “het Heilig Paterke”, or the little holy father, but of historically being a socialist stronghold as well. Hasselt’s public transport is free, and the city invests a lot of funds in what they modestly call “catching up”.

Gastronomically, Hasselt has always been way out front. Perched on the border between the lush hills of Haspengouw and the heath of the Kempen, the city is ideally positioned to combine the best produce of the two areas. Sturdy farms in the south bring in the fruit, dairy and meat to exhilarate the Hasselt’s spoiled pallet, while the north provides the ingredients to make the famous jenever. No coffee is served without a chocolate or a Hasseltse Speculoos biscuit.

Head east on the N75 towards Genk to see how the mines have risen from their ashes or to rummage in The Queen of the South’s scrap yard. Relax, and take time to make up your mind about Hasselt. In the meantime, treasure your Limburg friends because they are your ticket to the good life.