Christmas markets

Europe » France
December 6th 2008

Published: June 17th 2017

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jc80

01 St Maurice's Church

The back of the church.

Geo: 50.6372, 3.06302

Jess, Shona and I got up really early today and met at Kings Cross at 6.15am on a Saturday!! We caught the Eurostar to Lille, France to spend the day there and visit the Christmas markets. The plan was to sleep on the train because it was so early, but by the time we ate our breakfast and had a catch-up chat, we were already in France. I was surprised how quick the train journey was. Less than 2 hours and we were in Europe- fantastic! We were given a really bad map, so we followed the crowd. It was exciting that everything was written in French, a whole different culture, food and language. We saw a nice looking church, so we went inside to have a look (and to have a break from the cold weather). St Maurice was a typical gothic style church.
After the church we went towards to centre of town. It was easy to find as we could see the huge ferris wheel. The area was set up like Santa's village. It was decided that it would be a good idea to go on the ferris wheel to help orientate us with Lille, since

02 St Maurice's Church

The front of the church.

our map was useless. Once the started turning we got a bit scared! Then decided that it was so bad and enjoyed the view. We saw the Christmas markets in another square, town hall, opera house and many other pretty buildings. Once the short ride was over, we made our way to the markets. Half the stalls were food stalls and there was a good smell in the air. We had a browse around and then went in search of lunch- crepes!! We then asked for directions and found the Fine Arts Museum of Lille. My favourite painting was Monet's Houses of Parliament. Funniest painting was of strange looking children.
We then walked around the town, had a browse of the shops and kept our eye open for a patisserie. By now it was time for another break, so we found a bar and had hot drinks. We came across Notre Dame and walked inside it for a look around- not that special. Ended up in the centre of town again and walked towards the markets. On the way we stopped to walk some fire twirling. The markets were now packed! We came back to get some gluwein (hot red wine

03 Entrance

Looking at while standing at the entrance.

with spices) and pretzels. It was the best gluwein I'd ever had, maybe a bit too sweet. After some more wandering around we came to a shopping centre- that was a great place out of the cold. Then it was time to say goodbye to Lille and head back to the train station and go back to London. I had a fantastic day, once again it was great to be away from London.

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