Blogs from Lille, Nord-Pas de Calais, France, Europe

Off to France First step, sort the car up which we duly did - then found out the air conditioning didn’t work even though we had just had it regassed. Having spoken to the garage it seems working out the problem and fixing it was likely to cost more than the car was worth, so we decided to take the Astra instead. Shame as I wanted to get to 250,000 miles in the Touran! We caught the ferry from Dover to Dunkirk before heading to Lille where we met an old friend of Sue’s who I cleverly call Anne from France! The following day we went into Lille itself - me hobbling with my knee strapped from playing too much squash too quickly-Doh! Lille is bigger than I thought with a lovely old town. The Cathedral, ... read more

It was that time of year again....8yrs this time! ? 10yrs of actual togetherness ❤️ James is now living with us full time and in the midst of his GCSE's so our options were quite limited as we couldn't be away from home for too long. Luckily our friend Neil had offered to come and stay for the weekend to keep an eye on James so at least the child care aspect was taken care of ? . Not that he actually needed looking after.....as a 15yr old James is very sensible and we had no concerns ? . NSPCC guidelines, however recommend that you don't leave under 16's over night so it was handy that Neil was available. We decided on Lille. The Eurostar ? took us right into the city centre and Andrew's work ... read more

France has never really appealed to me as a country to visit, yet I've seen some beautiful photos online of different parts of the country. I've heard reviews that you must be good at speaking French and not many people will speak English may have had some influence in me not wanting to explore this European country. A poor excuse since France is a neighbour to the UK making a daytrip possible. However, I decided to give France a try on my return from Belgium since I needed to catch a ferry back home from Dunkirk. My manager at work suggested I take a look at Lille, as its only about 80km away from Dunkirk. I found a hotel outside of the city centre with free parking and good motorway connections, and it was only a ... read more

Hey guys! Hope you're all well This is my latest blog that will detail everything in the last month since I got back from my world trip! Firstly, and most importantly, the week after I got back it was finally Graduation time! Although the night itself went far too quickly with just a couple of hours for the ceremony and drinks afterwards, we made the celebration last even longer by having a graduation night out on the Friday with almost all our Geography class! Although I clearly drank too much it was a brilliant night out and really topped off the celebrations! The following week I went with my family over to Towcester racecourse where I made £60 from my winning horse! And a couple of weeks later I went up to Birmingham to visit the ... read more

I have arrived in Lille and have been welcomed by Lise's family. The first few days have been spent by getting used to the time difference, eating as much French food as I can, and practicing my French (OK I admit it I played a lot of league of legends too). French food I've eaten includes pumpkin soup, zucchini soup, Pot'je Vleesch (different meats in gelatin), different cheeses, baguettes, croissants, and different patés (like a meat spread that you put on bread). Lise and I took a long walk around Wambrechies (Where she actually lives, a small area close to Lille) and I took a lot of pictures to make a stop motion video that I can hopefully upload. We had planned to go to Strasbourg before Christmas to visit Lise's friend Alex and enjoy the ... read more