Blogs from Lille, Nord-Pas de Calais, France, Europe - page 2

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Europe » France » Nord-Pas de Calais » Lille December 26th 2012

The next day we decided to walk around Lille, use one of our Christmas presents, and visit the art expo known as Fantastic. The expo is composed of fantasy art all throughout the city. Lise parked in an underground parking deck in Euralille, a newer area of Lille. It’s a big shopping mall and if you park in the parking deck and bring the ticket to Carrefour after making a purchase, they knock off an hour and a half from your parking time. Most of the parking in Lille is not free so this was the most cost-effective option. The first thing that we did was to go on the Grande Roue (a big Christmas ferris wheel) that we had been given tickets to by Lise’s sister for Christmas. When we arrived at the top the ... read more
Lille Wheel
Wheel tickets
View from the top 1

Europe » France » Nord-Pas de Calais » Lille December 25th 2012

It’s Christmas Eve and I’m a little worried because today I’ll be on display for everyone. The Brocards are celebrating Christmas Eve because more of the family can come today. Here’s the guest list: Me, Lise, Mr. Brocard (Yves), Mrs. Brocard (Carole), Lise’s sister (Elodie), Her boyfriend (Olivier), Boyfriend’s dad (Serge) Lise’s mom is doing all of the cooking so I don’t have to worry about that (she prefers it that way too). Usually when I wrap presents I get my brother to help, and he was absent this time so I did my best with the wrapping. I got Lise a dress that she picked out. I bought finger puppets for Lise’s dad because he is notoriously difficult to buy gifts for. I ended up giving one to Serge also because he gave me a ... read more
Yves starting fire
The table is set
We opened the cat's presents first

Europe » France » Nord-Pas de Calais » Lille April 6th 2012

Right so I have not 'blogged' (is that a verb?!) before but due to crushing boredness and a stubborn refusal to tidy the mess that is my bedroom I thought I'd give it a go. What I'd like to write about today is the casual sexism that is still so apparent not only in England, but in the rest of Europe. I am a student at university, and recently went to Lille, France with a housemate. What we encountered there was quite astounding. As young women, and myself as a blonde and extremely pale, green-eyed lady, we are quite used to attention abroad. In Portugal and Spain I've experienced a lot of unwanted comments and looks- due to my skin and hair. But in France it was so much worse. I've been to France several times ... read more

Europe » France » Nord-Pas de Calais » Lille December 10th 2011

The first thing that took our attention when arriving at Lille was the big wheel at the city center. It was even hard to miss :-) Besides the big wheel there was a huge Christmas tree. There were a lot people in the city centre. We heard a lot of dutch-speaking people, sounds logical with the Belgian border so close-by. The Christmas Market was bigger than expected. It was nice, with the usual things that you can typically find at those markets. We bought some presents, and I took a few pictures of nice decorated market stalls (or is it rather kitsch...). We visited the city on foot, but it is also possible to rent bikes. The style of the houses looked very Flemish to me. There are a lot of nice shops, we especially remember ... read more
Opera de Lille
Merveilleux de Lille
Big Wheel

Europe » France » Nord-Pas de Calais » Lille December 10th 2011

Today was the day we went to Lille, we decided to go out a little later than planned, because of the late night before. We left home at 10am, and had the idea of being in Lille at 2pm, but obviously many many cars decided they had to go to Lille today, so we got stuck in a traffic jam, the clock hands began to irritate me, when we were creeping closer to 2pm without being even close. when we finally arrived in Lille, we had to find the hotel. The only thing i remembered what something "Grand Palais" which we found easily, but turned out to be a huge center, but not a hotel. After looking it up, we found it and we had to rush to get dressed and ready, because this night was ... read more
Lovely ladies
Twilla's ladies

Europe » France » Nord-Pas de Calais » Lille August 15th 2011

Today our extremely brief journey through Germany comes to an end as we head for France, our final European destination and where the adventure began nearly four months ago. Germany put on a perfect day for our departure. Perhaps this was a special message inviting us back in the not too distant future. Once again we resorted to our friendly GPS unit to guide us through what seemed to be a very complicated network of roads. We were surprised to see the name Eindhoven appear as a destination but who are we to argue with such an intelligent force as Miss GPS. We have become accustomed to seeing wind turbines on our drive through Germany, but today the sight of a coal fired power station belching smoke into the atmosphere was not pleasant at all. Soon ... read more
Brief excursion into Netherlands
A former grand home Lille
Mini inner-city farmyard

Europe » France » Nord-Pas de Calais » Lille February 4th 2011

Il y a déjà un moment que nous n’avons pas donné de nouvelles. Si nous n’avons pas l’excuse que l’université nous tient occupé, nous allons donc argumenter qu’elle nous laisse, au contraire, trop de temps libre, nous forçant ainsi à voyager et à découvrir l’Europe (bien entendu, c’est tout à fait contre notre gré). Nous avons donc, dans les dernières semaines, été sur la trotte pas mal! Afin de nourrir votre curiosité, pour la prochaine semaine, nous tenterons de publier un blog aux deux ou trois jours. Nous vous invitons ainsi à suivre, une fois de plus, nos trépidantes aventures sur le continent de nos ancêtres. Tout débute avec la visite toute spéciale de Justine (une amie de très longue date de Mathieu, ça remonte à la petite école) et de son copain, Maxime, (tous deux ... read more
Centre Historique Minier
Nos amis étrangés
À l'intérieur de la "mine"

Europe » France » Nord-Pas de Calais » Lille January 30th 2011

Pour leur première épreuve, nos deux héros devaient être en mesure de survivre pendant 6 jours sans chauffage ni eau chaude, commodités prises beaucoup trop pour acquises de nos jours. Ayant surmontés cette première étape sans trop de difficulté, nos deux protagonistes passaient à la deuxième épreuve : l’administration scolaire communément appelée la maison des fous dont personne n’est jamais ressorti saint d’esprit. Trouver les horaires des cours, faire un choix parmi ceux-ci, s’assurer qu’ils n’entrent pas en conflit, s’inscrire officiellement, remplacer les cours qui ont été entre temps annulés, faire approuver leur choix de cours par l’UQAM, faire faire sa carte étudiante, s’inscrire aux activités sportives… toutes ces choses qui auraient, dans la réalité québécoise, prises au maximum un avant-midi, les aurons occupés pendant au moins deux bonnes semaines. Entre-temps, une troi... read more
Noël sur la grand place
La mairie de Lille
Le marché de Wazemme

Europe » France » Nord-Pas de Calais » Lille January 10th 2011

En direct du vol 110 d'air transat en direction de Paris (Geneviève): En vol depuis moins de une heure, j'en peux déjà plus. Nous avons finalement décollé avec plus de 30 minutes de retard. À ma gauche, 2 gamins beaucoup trop excités. À ma droite, une grand-maman qui dort paisiblement malgré son voisin chialeux qui, en 30 minutes, a déjà appelé 2 fois l'agente de bord. Au décollage, mon oreille droite s'est complètement bouchée. Quelle douleur atroce! Pour palier à cette douleur, je m'inflige un surdose d'advils. J'ai l'impression d'avoir déjà abusé du bon vin français. Peut-être que cet état d'esprit m'aidera à oublier mon petit voisin français surexcité qui vient de décider de chanter à heute voix n'importe quoi en anglais! Pour conclure, il fait chaud (ce qui est ma fois très rare en avion) ... read more
La cuisine
Le salon
L'escalier




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