Lille, France

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Lille, northern France

I was off to Lille by mid-day on the 7th. I caught the TGV (Fast) train which took only an hour and a half to arrive in Lille. It was quite the experience to sit on a train cruising at 250km/hr. In fact it took me a good 20 minutes of reading and listening to my IPOD before I looked out and realized how fast we were going. The ground nearest to the train was impossible to follow, and even the trees and hills in the distance moved faster than my eyes could follow. When I arrived in Lille it was around 4pm , and it had just started to rain. Unlucky for me, I wasn’t able to reach my host on her cell phone after a few tries, so I walked around with all of my shit looking for an internet café to email her from. I did eventually find one and sent her an email to let her know where I was. Angie responded that she couldn’t answer because she was in the movies, so she came to get me at the train station shortly after. She and her boyfriend Hugo gave me a quick bit of info about Lille city center then showed me to her apartment. She has a nice, inviting studio apartment with a great view of the town and a park below. We chatted for a bit and jammed on our guitars before heading out for some pizza at their favorite local place. I must admit it was a good, meaty pizza I had there. Later on we met up at an Irish Pub for a CouchSurfing party. I met a few new folks and chatted a lot about France and Belgium with one girl, who taught me a famous French line that says you’ll cry when you have to go to the north and cry when you have to leave; referring to the unpopularity of Northern France and its warm people and captivating nature. Oh, and Angie had her first Guinness there! Next day Angie and Hugo took me on a very pleasant walk through town and into a park which housed a free zoo and a famous French architect’s star-shaped “fortress” for lack of better terms. It’s a massive star-shaped complex built at least 100 years ago. It’s now used for the military. The path winding around it was full of lush green vegetation, a swampy canal, and moss covered walls 20 meters tall. That just about did it for my time in Lille. All in all I am glad I went and enjoyed it, but one night was enough. Now off to Belgium!!

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