Lille - Day 2

We decided to be nice and touristy on our second day in France and wandered around Lille taking photos of anything that was large and had been carved in some way. Here, for example, is a picture of a man on a statue of a horse on top of a large block of stone. Thrilling eh?


_{This chap is called 'Foch'. Hehe, 'Foch'.}

I much preferred the little things in doorways and side-streets though, of which there were many - sometimes very cool. Take this little angel doorknocker on a building of no importance whatsoever:



Likewise, here's a kitty in someone's window:


_{Hehe, kitty}

After quite some wandering, I dragged Julie - a confirmed heathen (Methodist) into a proper, Catholic Palm Sunday mass. In French no less too. I love French Churches and services - and there was naturally a great organ in the Cathedral too.

We then headed to the Museum of Beautiful Art to look at some...well you get the idea. That was all lovely, but it was the impromptu renaissance music group playing amongst the paintings that I really loved. That and the fact that there were two harpsichords just lying around the place...and being played. So, so beautiful:


<sub>The first, beautifully simply harpsichord


The second, fancier, modern harpsichord


Inside the second one...</sub>

After some more wanderings and the like it was off out for our meal in a brothel.

I must stop typing the word 'brothel' on my blog.

Dunquerke is the least interesting place on Earth

A chap I work with started the Marathon Des Sables today - a 250km run across the Sahara Desert over 6 days. The Sahara is one of the most desolate, unchanging, flat and boring areas of landmass in the world. Compared to Dunquerke though, it's a veritable metropolitan hotspot.

Ju & I decided, based on the fact that we'd heard of it, to pop into Dunquerke on our way home from Lille, to see what there was to see. We got there at the peak hour of activity, and were pleasantly surprised to learn that parking in the city centre was mere pence, as opposed to the usual high tariffs we'd been experiencing in Lille.


_{I was going to put up a picture of Dunquerke, but this one was more interesting.}

We took a stroll up from the car park to see a statue of Jean Bart...whoever he was. It was quite a nice statue, it even had a bit of a water feature. We then walked around the whole centre. Twice. There was a café, which didn't look very nice. There was a clothes shop, which didn't have many clothes. There was a fish shop, which still accepted Francs. There was a boulangerie, I bought a cake.

Then we left.

I went on the internet to find some streams of paint drying, but unfortunately Watching Paint Dry has now shut down, so instead, here's a live stream of grass growing. It's better than visiting Dunquerke.

Jean Bart, by the way, was apparently a French pirate who liked to sink English ships. Bastard. Here's a couple of choice quotes from the Rough Guide I browsed through (after visiting the place, needless to say) to learn that:

"Dunquerke achieved fame at the exact same moment as it was flattened"

"...was rebuilt during the most uninspired period of Western architecture"

"...contains no landmarks or places of interest to visit"

And my favourite line, from the 'Eating Out' section (which normally spans two pages, even for a relatively small French town, and contains many restaurant recommendations, notes about the food of the region, etc):

Eating Out:
Dunquerke is not famous for its gastronomy.
_{<The section ends.>}

Eating in Lille

There are only three reasons to visit France. I'll discuss shopping in another post, and I didn't see any reservoirs to drop poison into - so we're left with the third...the gorgeous food. I won't bore you with every bite...but here's some of the highlights...

Post's a bit long I realise...but read on to find out about the brothel.

Our first night, we managed to find the only restaurant in Mouvaux, which was gorgeous despite being stuck in the middle of nowhere. I was also fairly amused by the fact that the English menu they tried to replace our French menus with after they heard us chatting didn't have any of the set meals or special offers on it. Smooth.

Campanpaille - Mouvaux
Myself - Grapefruit, Steak, Apple tart
Julie-oh - Cheese & herbs, Faux-Filet...and the below


<sub>My dessert was ok...


..but Ju's expresso with chocolate, whiskey and cream was gorgeous</sub>

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The next day, once we'd actually found Lille proper, we stopped off in a small corner café for a quick lunch. Once I'd explained in French, to the waitress who I later found out spoke Spanish and English (but little French), about Julie's specialness (gluten allergies), we were ready to order. I picked the dish on the menu I could translate the least of, and she ordered a gorgeous salad. Without bread or croutons.

Some café - Lille
Myself - Tartin au...something. A kind of French bread base with gorgeous cheese, duck and pork over the top of it
Julie-oh - Beautiful looking salad with pate and apple. And no bread, eventually.


<sub>As I enjoyed my superb meal...


...Ju sat there taking photos of me and sending her salads back because they had bread on them...


...but it was totally worth the wait.</sub>

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That night, we found the most amazing restaurant in the whole city, and ended up completely abandoning our plans to have a night out on the town, favouring instead the choice of simply sitting back and relaxing in Tropic '97.

Tropic '97, not found in any guide book we could see, was a little place set off a side-street in the centre of Lille, and we could tell it was going to be good as we passed through the palm trees, through the Star-Trek style sliding glass doors and into what looked, at first glance, like a brothel. Seriously.

Purple and red chaises longues were scattered around the room, next to a grand piano and a well stocked bar. The chap who casually strolled out to meet us from behind the bar just shrugged and said 'sit anywhere' when we asked for a table and then proceeded to walk back behind the bar and dance for a bit. 'Sit' makes it sound a bit formal, doesn't it - I think a more appropriate verb would be 'lie', or 'lounge'.

The whole place was Caribbean-French, in terms of attitude, food and sheer élan and the food was to die for. I wouldn't often go to one country to taste the food of another, but this place is certainly recommended if you're ever within a few hundred miles.

Tropic '97 - Lille
Myself - Creole prawns, spiced chicken, aubergine, onion, dauphinoise potatoes...and many other things I couldn't identify that were simply exquisite. Followed by the thickest and nicest chocolate mousse I've ever tasted.
Julie-oh - Crab, with a steak of some fish we never did quite work out - along with all the various side bits too. Followed by a mix of ice-creams that were very Caribbean and possibly a bit alcoholic.

No pictures I'm afraid, we forgot the camera - but that's probably just as well given the drinks they were serving afterwards. When I asked for a g&t and a rum & coke I wasn't expecting triples...the barman just assumed. That's the kind of place it was.

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We finished up with lunch at a crêperie on the Sunday, followed by a 'picnic' of sorts on the ferry home, after our trip to the hypermarchet...but a bit more on that place later. It's quite depressing being back in Britain now, the food's not just the same.

Lille trip - The first day

Our weekend in France was actually spent in a little place by the name of Mouvaux, famous for being:

"...a populated place in Nord-Pas-de-Calais"

Hardly seems worth getting up at 5.00am for, does it? With my usual style, grace and just generally superb directional abilities we just about managed to make it to Dover on time, despite heading off towards Gatwick for a bit. I still blame Google Maps' vagueness for that one.

The super-budget SeaFrance ferry (the channel's answer to EasyJet) was a disappointment, it didn't even have a grand piano in the lounge area - or Point Blank in the arcade room! I seriously have one of the best Point Blank scores ever on an arcade machine that is (was) floating across the Bristol Channel, unless Greenpeace have blown it up yet.

After a thrilling trip across the desolate wastelands of Northern France, littered with fields upon which many German and British troops died (the French had run off), we decided to drive into Lille for some entertainment. Unfortunately, the first time we'd arrived, we didn't actually make it into the centre of Lille (my directional skills again) and stopped somewhere in the suburbs, thinking; 'this doesn't seem very impressive...'.

Still, we found some nice shops and somewhere to eat (more on food later too), before heading on back to our little b&b - Le Jardin d'Alix. A gorgeous little place with only one downside...a very tempermental 'automatic' gate blocking the way in or out - we had some fun with that.


_{It looked a hell of a lot nicer before the rain came down}

That evening we exhausted the thrilling delights that Mouvaux had to offer (a pharmacy, a health food shop, a Church with a classical concert on that Julie completely failed to photograph well despite many, many hours of trying, a few more shops, a traffic light) - so it was a relatively early night for the pair of us...well, we were a fresh couple after all.


_{This is the best photo, would you believe :P}

Back in the real world (almost)

Phew, don't think I've ever been this quiet before, have I? Been having quite a wild time since last Friday - I'll share some stories and the like with you later (when I have some more photos to put up) on here, feel free to ask about the rest of the stories I shan't be sharing on here. I probably won't tell you though. Ooooh, mysterious :p

Right now though, I'm just lying around trying not to fall asleep after some very, very early mornings and late nights. I've managed to have an entire holiday without one lie-in or full night's sleep and more than a couple of very early mornings to get to various places.

After an early start yesterday to get me to a hotel bar in Birmingham for a team meeting (it's a hard life), I was at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham today for a big Microsoft event I was presenting and helping out at, and tomorrow I'm back off to Cardiff for some much needed relaxation and sleep.

France was great though (if not the French), and I had a rather good time and got back with lots of really nice stuff. Still though, for the >£700 we managed to spend that weekend, you'd really hope so wouldn't you? Ouch for my bank account :(

Pictures, etc, to come later. Sleep now.

Xx