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Published: August 21st 2007
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Palais des Beaux-Arts
The second largest museum in France, behind the Lourve in Paris Another weekend rolls around and another chance for us to leave behind London and head off on another little adventure.
Our stop this time - Lille in northern France. Just a short Eurostar trip across the English Channel into France, not too far from the Belgium border.
We headed off after work on Friday and made the 1hr 40min trip from Waterloo to Lille. I think Ange and I still both agree that train travel is our prefered method - just so relaxed, ample room, and a quieter passenger group compared to air travel - or maybe we've just been lucky so far.
We arrived into Lille at about 10pm and began to fret at the thought of managing the language barriers that we knew would arise. We frantically attempted to memorise what we thought would be our most frequently used saying - "Parlez-vous anglais?" Translation: Do you speak English?
We found the taxi rank and armed with our phrase we waited for the first taxi. Our cabbie pulled up and got out and greated us with "Bonjour" to which I automatically replied with "Gidday mate". He smile and said "Hello". We were relieved that he spoke
English to a resonable level for us to give him the hotel details and have a basic conversation with him.
We arrived at our hotel, which we were happy to find was really close to one of the key tourist sights - the Palais des Beaux-Arts - the second largest museum in France behind the Lourve in Paris.
We checked in without too much trouble and ducked down for a quick nightcap at the bar before we retired for the night ready for the day of sightseeing ahead.
We woke Saturday and ventured down to the breakfast included with the hotel. I was not surprised to find Ange had located the chocolate croissants. After a hearty breakfast to gear us up for the day we headed off into Lille.
Like so many places we go, very little opens early and the town was deserted - and this was at 9.30am. Never the less we took the opportunty to walk around the 'newer' looking part of the town known as the Pedestrian Streets - an area full of the latest fashion shops. We located the tourist office not far from here and armed ourselves with a better
The Grand Place
With the Vieille Bourse (old stock exchange) to the right and the Goddess coloumn to the left. map than the printout we had and headed off towards the tourist spots.
Not far from the tourist centre was the main square - the Grand Place - a large courtyard which featured the Goddess column - somewhat similar to the Nelson monument in Trafalgar Square. Surrounding the square were a lot of cafes and bars (yet to open of course) and a few impressive old buildings including the Vieille Bourse (old stock exchange) and one of the theatres. This square reminded us a lot of Brugge and we expected this would be the centre of the action as the day moved on and the crowds began.
Not far from the Grand Place was another square which featured Ange and my favourite buildings, the impressive Opera and The Chamber of Commerce with it's large belfry. At this point Ange had spotted her first patisserie which we had to go explore.
We had heard that the area known as The Old Lille was worth a visit - an area of narrow cobblestone streets lined with 17th and 18th century Flemish townhouses - and we have to say this was by far our favourite area. Just quiet streets filled
The Goddess column
This square would be packed later in the day with shops, cafes, and old homes.
Also within this area was the Cathedral Notre-Dame de la Treille - a lovely old church adorned with magnificent stained glass windows and gargoyles..
By now we had worked up somewhat of an appetite for lunch - yet we faced the issue of deciding where to go for lunch - especially since we couldn't translate most of the menus. After a lot of searching we settled on one of the busy cafes in the Grand Place. By now the sun was shining, quite hot actually, and we set ourselves up in the sun for a lazy lunch and a few beers. Once again we had the problem with the language and we settled for food we could decipher - mussels and salmon washed down with a few very large beers. In true style we follwed lunch with a long afternoon nap back at our hotel.
That night we made our way back towards the primary areas around the Grand Place in search of somewhere for a beer and then a bite to eat for dinner. We found a rather flash looking restaurant that had been recommended to us and made a
booking for later that night. Till then we wander around to one of the outdoor seating areas of a local bar and sat back enjoying a few beers surrounded by the locals and the fantastic buildings.
Our dinner was really nice and gave us the opportunity to try a few dishes we wanted to tick off the list. For Ange it was the escargot (snails) in a rich garlic butter (unfortunately I'm allergic to the little suckers as I love them). For me it was a chance to try the Steak Tartare - in other words raw mince. Now I have to say it was nice - having a light dressing mixed through it with capers, mustard and egg white - but after half a cow (the serve was massive), I must admit I was starting to feel like I had had enough.
We woke Sunday to the knowledge that most shops would be shut. But Sunday is known as market day and we had heard there was a really good market called Place de la Nouvelle Aventure in Wazemmes. The markets themselves were massive and the crowds to match, but they offered a really good insight into
the area and the mix of people who lived there. We madce our way around the really busy paths between a mix of shops selling everything from bric-a-brac, clothing and accessories, flowers to fresh fruit and veg. It was a mad house getting through the maze, but we pushed on and found some good bargains - well Ange did anyway, managing to buy three pairs of shoes and a handbag for under 20 euro.
After spending the whole morning wandering the markets, we decided to go for a wander out to the large park - Parc de la Citadelle - a large wooded park on the banks of the River Deule. As we started to wander through the area we were surprised to find they had a free zoo there as well. Never one to pass up a free zoo and a chance to check out the monkeys (yes I like monkeys) we took a wander. It wasn't too bad either - no Australia Zoo or anything, but had a good selection of creatures.
As we left the zoo, the skys decided to open up and we made for the shelter of the large trees to let the
rain pass. Almost as a sign we decided it was time to make for one of the local watering holes for a beer. We found a little place in Old Lille and settled down for a few beers. After a few it was time for a bit to eat before retiring for the evening.
Unfortunately for us our meal on the last night there would come back to haunt us and leave a bad memory. We were rather boozed by the time we decided to settle on a venue a little more conducive to the English tourists as we had struggled so much with the language throughout the weekend. I usually make a point not to go to these types of places but the beer had clouded my better judgement. In short we had a bad night Sunday night reliving dinner. To make matters worse we had to be up at 4.30am in order to get ready to make our Eurostar train back to London and work.
But in retrospect we enjoyed our first trip to France, and while we did struggle with the language barriers we enjoyed the trip. Definitely worth a weekend visit if you get
a chance.
Next stop Biarritz in France in two weeks time - another chance to try our French skills.
Till then.
PS We have even uploaded a video on this blog - enjoy the sounds of France
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