Today I will conclude our misadventure in
Lille.
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| The view from my hotel room. |
Next morning, sky was blue and it was already warm at 7:30 when I
woke up. What's a contrast to the day before! In a simple hotel room like
this, there is nothing to do but to get up and to go down for a breakfast. I
booked my breakfast last night. It was a buffet. Boy! There were
everything you could want for a continental breakfast there. There were about six different types
of bread including brioches, wholemeal, white, baguettes, sliced tin
bread, rolls, with a toaster. Butter, honey and several different fruits
of jams (I chose apricots). There were orange juice, apple juice, tea and
coffee. Yogurt of different flavours. President cheese and two kinds of
cereals. French people usually have light breakfast. There were a dozen
people having breakfast when I went there. Every single one was French. They had a small amount of bread and had Café au lait. I, instead, ate everything to my heart's content.
Yogurt and cheese were particularly nice to start our second day with many
hours of walking. 5 euro was well spent on the breakfast!
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| Waiting for the bus to come. That's the tower I mentioned. |
I checked out, and walked into this new world. When sky is blue,
everything looks chirpy and cheerful. Even the empty office building
seems a bit positive! I walked to the bust stop, and took some photos.
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| Re-painted white patches at the presumably emergency staircase. |
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| So many flats, but nobody was seen. René Magritte-esque place! |
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| It looks pretty from inside the Metro station against blue sky! |
At the metro station, I saw people. They were apparently commuting or
going to school. They looked busy and purposeful. I joined them. I had a
glimpse of the white high apartments, which looked spooky last night.
They were pretty against blue sky. But they still looked spooky. Why
didn't they build houses instead of high rises? There are obviously
plenty land around here. I was thinking about it when I got in the
train.
I arrived 30 minutes earlier than the arrival
of the train coming from Ashford. There were lots of
engineers working on cables under the floor. I saw so many different
coloured cables running. They were for the electric notice board for
arrival.
Mike found me and spread his arms wide. I was
so glad to see him again. We went back to our usual cafe, Paul. Mike had
breakfast(there were no freshly baked pastries again!), and I ordered
espresso. We caught up with each other's story.
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| Post office |
Last night, Mike's train didn't stop at Ebbelsfleet, so he had to go
to St Pancras. There was, he told me angrily, a passport control. We
were repeatedly told that there were not passport controls at either
Ashford or London station, I, therefore, were not allowed to travel to UK. At St Pancras, he
ran to the ticket office and bought a single ticket to Canterbury. Boy,
it cost more than off-peak return tickets I usually buy. (If you buy
single tickets or a full price tickets in UK including Eurostar, be
warned, they are excessively expensive. the Eurostar return
ticket Mike bought the evening before was three times more than the
return tickets I initially booked in advance!) Then he had to run to
catch the train to Ashford.
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| Opera House. I love the lamp post! It reminds me of La Opera at Paris! |
At home about 10 o'clock at night, he
rang our lovely dog walker, Theresa; luckily she could walk our dog next
day. He looked after parrots, a chicken and dogs (luckily Pearl, the
leaky one, was crossing her legs and didn't have an accident in the
evening), found my old passport, read an email sent from my hotel, took
shower and went to sleep. But like me, he couldn't sleep much because he
was worried that he could miss the train next morning. He got up about
5, and drove to the station, and caught the same train we took 24 hours
earlier and now he is having a breakfast in front of me. I knew he would
be more tired than I was.
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| A lampshade shop |
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| Delicious looking quiches |
We decided we would take easy, just strolling the old beautiful town
and sitting at cafes. But first thing I had to do was to buy changing in
a hyper-store. After changing, we were off to beautiful old square.
This place looks always attractive. Colourful Flanders buildings are a
treat to eyes, but against blue sky they looked really stunning. We
walked around familiar streets, checking the window displays of lovely
boutiques (which are plenty in Lille).
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| A flower shop |
We walked
enough and made ourselves hungry. We had already decided to go to our
old haunt,
Coq Hardi. When I visit a new place, I usually follow bank clerks at lunch time. They usually lead me a restaurant with a good value! That's how I found this place. So, since the first visit, we always have lunch
here. Even when I came alone, I had lunch here. I am a bit
conservative with food, and if I find something I like I will stick with
it. Mike is even more conservative than I am.
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| Our favourite, Coq Hardi. Handsome building! |
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| The view form our table. Looking at the theatre direction. |
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| Local beer. My empty glass. |
Look at the sky! Suddenly summer came. Every eater was eating under the sky. We joined them. My favourite is beef stewed in beer and a glass
of local beer. Mike having allergy to beef, he had same stew with a
chicken. Incredible amount of meat was served. I became very full after
that.
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| Old Exchange |
Mike wanted to visit a porcelain shop which sells white porcelain at a
good price. I used to buy tiny dishes for my flock of
finches. We went there, it was closed for lunch. So we went a cafe
called
Méo,where we bought our colourful tea caddies before. Barista was very friendly.
We also had lovely macaroons, too. We sat in the other side of square of the restaurant, just enjoyed watching people walked passed. It's so
peaceful. It really struck me that people in Lille have been friendly
and kind. Metro staff, bus drivers, passer-by, shop keepers, everyone
was genuinely friendly, and they speak English so well. What a change! When I
went to Paris alone for the first time 26 years ago, I couldn't buy a
metro ticket because I had to ask for it in French at a counter. I couldn't pronounce the name of the my destination. A woman at the counter
was arrogant and irritable. At that time, there was an air that those
who didn't speak French were under class in France. Nowadays young people
speak English very well and they are more open to the outside world. I
try my rudimentary French anytime I visit France, but nowadays, they chose to
speak in English to tourists. Mike was taught French at school,like all kids in
England, but he seems to repeat 'Ok' quite often, lol, and when he needs to communicate, he usually speaks in
English.
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| View of the Square. Our Coq Hardi is the second building from the left. |
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| Irresistible looking Macaroons at Méo |
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| View of the square. |
We peeked Gallerie Lafayette and Printemps. we enjoyed looking at
tableware. Then we returned to the porcelain shop, and bought one salad
bowl. Sadly, because of the weight, we only bought one. But Mike kept saying
that we should have bought at least two afterwards. It was only 5 euro
at a special offer.
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| 5 Euro. A real bargain! |
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| Surprise! Mike found Le Pain Quotidien on the same street as the porcelain shop was! But there was no almond croissants (my most favourite) there : ( |
We peeked inside the remain of an old palace, which is upstairs of
Office de Tourisme. Stained glasses were beautiful.
This little building has more characters than large neighbors.
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| This building reminds me of Disney film of 'The little house'. |
We visited The Église Saint-Maurice. From front it looks Gothic.
Its stained glasses are beautiful. I am not religious, but I can't help feeling serene and pious in the church like this.
But side and rear shows different faces. It must be extended in different times. According to Wikipedia, its construction began in the 14th century, and only completed in 19th century. It took amazingly 500 years to build it. What a history!
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| I felt as if I time-tripped to the Middle age. |
To avoid any confusion and another trouble, we went back to the station
one hour before the departure time. We asked Eurostar staff to put our seats
together. At the UK border controls, a female officer asked me why I
held a ticket for the day before, (I explained) she said that the rule
had changed they don't transfer visa to a new passport any longer, so I
have to carry two passports, old and new one when I travel. Something is not right with this new rule.
The trains was delayed by 30 minutes. It was unusual in our experience. There were several security people aboard checking tickets. Then there was announcement. They want to check unclaimed luggage in coach 17. So people in coach 17 were asked to return to their carriage. Bomb alerts? I whispered Mike. I turned back to a lady who was in the train from Brussels. She said that she traveled before in the same train, and they always do security checks. Really? By the time we arrived at Calais, there was announcement saying that all luggage was accounted for. All security got off the train there.
So we arrived at Ashford (Yes, there was a passport control!) an hour later. When we got home Topaz and Pearl seemed ecstatic to see me again! They were jumping up and going around me like a merry-go-round. You know, I felt so good to be at home again. I slept very well on that night.
