Herstal, Belgium

Living in Herstal, Belgium means coping with a population of nearly 40,000 and a heavy industrial legacy. The city's armaments factories and steel mills provide employment, but also a persistent bureaucratic headache for residents. Despite its Merovingian and Carolingian history, Herstal today is a gritty working-class enclave, with the far-left Workers' Party commanding over a quarter of the local vote. This is a city for hardened factory workers, not glamorous expats seeking a pastoral European idyll.