Lille, France

Europe » France
March 9th 2005

Published: August 15th 2005

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B C vs The World

Starting off

Ben, Me, and Jon at Eurostar check in

So I finally made it to the continent!
Went to France for the first time on Saturday night.

All I can say is, France would be lovely if it wasnt full of French people!

Our 5-a-side footy tournament has finished and some of us decided to have a weekend away to finish off. So Ben, Jon, Tony (AUS), Trevor (IRE), Dan and I (NZ) all decided we would go on a Eurostar overnight fare to France. Paris was booked, so Lille, in the north, was to be our target. We decided that as it was only an overnighter, we wouldn’t get accommodation and just party all night in the clubs, easy.

So we boarded the Eurostar in high spirits on Saturday afternoon, few beers and a pack of cards for the trip, great time. Arrived in Lille, no fuss and wandered into the city. Lots of cobbled streets and squares, it was a very nice little place. Felt the same as any English town, apart from the fact that everyone was speaking French of course!
Snow on the ground, but nice clear weather.
Popped into McDonalds to use the facilities, so to speak. (Lots of beer on the

Architecture

Some beautiful buildings

train!) Asked for directions to the bars from some lovely local girls, (luckily Trev has a smattering of Francais), and off we wandered. Didn’t seem to be a whole heap of bars, but we did bump into some American girls that were living over there and they took us to their local fav where we had a few pints.

Left the girls to find their friends and we headed back into the center to have some dinner. Ended up at a chain restaurant, which was fine, as the cuisine was still great. Really nice 3 course meal with a beer for only 25 euro. Easy.

Headed back up to the bar end of town, found our American guides, and went to a place that was chocka block with people. Music a little French / top of the pops sorta thing, women were gorgeous, guys were generally pretty short.
Nothing funnier than a short Frenchman with no rythym, trying to dance with a stunning 6 footer. Well, apart from the 50 year old gentleman just standing in the middle of the dancefloor in his leather jacket smoking a cigarette! Different cultures ah?

Anyway, this was all cool, but

Architecture

Great spaces

we wanted somewhere to move and that was going to be open all night. So we left there and tried our luck at a few other places without the girls. We must have gone to 5 other bars, with and without the girls (who had shown back up), but the wanker doormen wouldn’t let us into a single one! After a few knockbacks, we came to the conclusion that it was because we weren’t French! We had been making a point of saying we weren’t English, but it wasn’t helping. It was further collaborated by a group of lads from Holland who were getting the same reception everywhere they went. We couldn’t even find a strip club to have a drink in!

Everywhere was shut or not letting us in by now, so we wandered the streets for a few hours (pretty cold in the snow I tell ya!) and managed to track the Americans down about 3am. There friend was most generous and invited us back to his place, where we just sat around talking and drinking his whisky for 3 or 4 hours. We then headed back into town to find a café, managed to find a

Architecture

Interesting features

single one open and sat down to the worst coffee Ive ever tasted.

Back to the train station again for the best part of the trip, the lovely Eurostar. Considering how fast the thing travels, it is super smooth, which was great because we were all asleep in 15 mins.

All in all, Im in no hurry to return to France, especially Lille. Although my French flatmate has promised that next time, he will take me and show me proper French hospitality. Fingers crossed.

Peace out

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