Musée de la Rubanerie Ypres

This unexpectedly fascinating museum celebrates the ribbon-making industry, Comines’ economic mainstay since 1719. On weekends, passionate, knowledgeable museum staff set the antique machinery in motion and use cunningly devised model mechanisms to explain how they work. Suddenly ribbon looms, bootstrap twisters and zipper functionality all seem remarkably engrossing. French language skills certainly help.