The most interesting of Brussels' southern communes — a dense urban village with a significant student and artist population, excellent restaurants, and a scattering of Art Nouveau architecture that puts it on the Horta heritage trail. The area around Place du Châtelain and Place Flagey is where Brussels goes on a summer evening: terraces, a weekly food market on Wednesdays, and enough bar variety to sustain a long night.
Ixelles also contains the Abbaye de la Cambre, a medieval abbey set in formal gardens; the Art Deco Flagey building (now a concert hall and cultural centre); and the Elsene Ponds, two linked lakes where people jog and feed ducks with genuine Bruxellois lack of self-consciousness. The commune is served by multiple tram lines from the centre.