Slightly away from Ballard's 'downtown' streets, Besalu lures visitors to its isolated perch on 24th Ave with its French-style baked goods (in particular the croissants and quiches), which some bloggers have hailed as 'better than Paris.'


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby attractions

1. Ballard Building

0.24 MILES

Ballard’s only major terracotta structure was built in the 1920s by the Fraternal Order of Eagles. It once held a community hospital and now houses shops,…

2. Bergen Place Park

0.29 MILES

In case you forget where you are or the origin of the settlers to whom Ballard owes its existence, a quintet of flags fly over diminutive Bergen Place…

3. Commemorative Bell Tower

0.31 MILES

On the corner of Ballard Avenue NW and 22nd Ave is the original location of Ballard City Hall, sometimes called ‘Hose Hall,' which also contained the jail…

4. Nordic Museum

0.32 MILES

Reason alone to come to Ballard – if the culinary scene and waterside parks weren’t enough – is this delightful surprise of a museum dedicated to Nordic…

5. Portland Building

0.33 MILES

A great example of the decorative brickwork that graces many of the buildings along Ballard Ave, the Portland Building has housed all kinds of businesses…

6. GS Sanborn Building

0.39 MILES

The GS Sanborn Building is Ballard’s only example of Romanesque architecture, a style that was popular on the East Coast in the 1880s. It has a sandstone…

7. Scandinavian American Bank Building

0.43 MILES

The second-empire-baroque–style Scandinavian American Bank Building is a nice example of the early-1900s tendency to flatter by imitation: its concrete…

8. Junction Building

0.5 MILES

Now lacking its decorative 3rd-floor corner turret, the narrow Junction Building (dating from 1890) has had all number of reincarnations in its 125-year…