On the road again!

Thursday, June 04, 2015

Bonjour from Lille!

Up this morning after our last night in Paris – we had a lovely 2½ hours at the Louvre, with many fewer people than normal, which was nice.  The only problem was that after our incredible lunch, neither of us was hungry again until this morning!  Oh well!

Looking down the Seine from a bridge 

Le Louvre Musee

Gudea, Prince of Lagash

We had our usual breakfast – pain au chocolat for me, and croissants for Robert, with raspberry jam and washed down by orange juice. 

Algebra problem on clay tablet

Yet another ancient lion

New piece at the Louvre*

Excellent!  And I will miss those pastries until the next time we are in Paris.  We then reassembled all of our stuff – getting easier as once we shipped box number 2 home, not that much left to pack.  We did receive word today from Stew that they have received arrival information on box #1, but they need to go pick it up at the post office.  I hadn’t realized they needed a signature!  We were ready to leave the apartment by 8 (the benefit of being in a very tiny space is that there isn’t that much to clean up to leave!) and headed down to Luxembourg station on RER B to catch the train to Anthony, and the OrlyVal train to Orly airport.  We were able to add zone 4 to our week’s metro pass, and then get separate tickets just on OrlyVal, so that was nice and convenient.  We were there in about 45 minutes.  We then found Europcar and were able to pick up our car.  It’s a nice newish Citroen; very comfortable to drive.  I really, truly always hate to leave Paris; it is such an incredible city, and there is always so much to do!  We didn’t make it to Sacre Coeur, Montmartre, Les Invalides – the list goes on, along with all the restaurants we weren’t able to get to…we’ll just have to come back, that’s all! 

Always beautiful mosaic

Venus de Milo!

Lion weight

So…out of the airport and into rush hour traffic to one of the Paris’ ring roads.  As it turns out, we ended up going all the way past Charles de Gaulle airport, and R wondered why we hadn’t picked the car up there…my rationale being that Orly is much easier to navigate, as well as cheaper to get to – so into the traffic we went, eventually popping out north of CDG and Paris and headed toward Lille. 

Our tram to Lille!

Train/tram station

Stunning opera house

The day was beautiful and sunny, and the temperature definitely on the rise.  Tomorrow, it’s supposed to be somewhere around 89 degrees here, and then rain/thundershowers in the evening sending the temperature back down. 

It took us about 2½ hours to get to Lille, and then off the freeway we went, and on to surface streets.  Lille looks really lovely, but it is a big city with lots of traffic, including trams and a metro and lots of buses.  Emmy (GPS) guided us perfectly to our Hotel du Croise where we will be staying the next four nights.  It’s actually in the Lille suburb of Marcq-en-Baroeul, about 50 meters to the tram to Lille (runs every 4 minutes) on a nice, shady street.  There are only 11 rooms, and I think they’re pretty much all alike.  They are small, but very well appointed – as Robert says, unlike our Paris flat, there are actually two chairs to sit on, and places for the alarm clock and our suitcases!  There is also AIR CONDITIONING and heat!  Whew!  There is also a lovely French door that opens on to their open terrace, where each room has a table and chairs and umbrella.  Very nice, and certainly not expensive!  The lovely owner checked us in in French, which was fun, and showed us to room #2, and we are now all set for the next few nights! 

Beautiful town hall

Oyster restaurant mosaic

As R set up the computer (always his #1 priority!) I got us organized and in a very short time, we were ready to head to the tram.  My plan is to see Lille today, and then spend the next few days touring the WWI (Great War) battle sites and memorials in the area before heading to Bruges on Monday. 

Interesting architecture

R's strawberry beer!

R's shrimp skewers with rice

We bought tickets at the local tram stop, and were soon heading into Lille.  We got off at the last stop – the Flandres train station.  (One interesting thing:  Very close to the hotel, along the tramway, Robert spotted a cottage with an actual thatched roof!  It was gorgeous – but seems very odd to have in France!)  We reached downtown Lille in a little over 10 minutes, and headed out to see the “old town.”  The nice people at our hotel have provided us with all sorts of maps and booklets, and we were able to find our way around fairly easily.  The old village square was beautiful, and the architecture of the buildings is very interesting – and certainly nothing Parisian-like at all!  Actually, seemed to us with our new eyes to be much more reminiscent of Holland.  We headed to the restaurant area that had been recommended to us, but unfortunately, we were too late!  I guess they stop serving lunch around 2, and as it was closer to 2:30, everyone was very sorry, but no food for us!  UGH! 

My Welsh Complet!

And look what I found!!!

And I was really getting peckish!  We finally decided to head back toward the tram/train station to see if anything was open, and came across a very nice pub.

Food?  No problem!  So we sat down to take a look at the menu.  In spite of R’s request for salad, he ended up ordering shrimp skewers that came with tomatoes and rice; he ate every bit!  I ordered Le Welch Complet – which I believe is the French version of Welsh Rarebit.  At any rate, I got an entrée dish with bread, topped by ham, topped by cheese, topped by an egg, sunny-side up with frites!  And believe it or not, it was fabulous!  Who knew?!  We both ended up eating everything in front of us, and R even washed his down with not one but TWO glasses of beer!  (I think this part of France is more beer-oriented than wine-oriented!)  The beer he was drinking is Grimbergen, made by an Abbey for hundreds of years and reputed to be one of the best beers in the world.  His first glass was Rouge – and when it came, not only was it a red color, but it smelled like strawberries – which is what it tasted like, too!  Fun!  For Robert’s second glass, he ordered Ambre (Amber) which he liked better – but it certainly didn’t smell as good!

After lunch, we decided to head to the huge Carrefour across the street, as R wanted to get a good map of Belgium, and we were actually able to find one!  R wanted a map book, which they didn’t have, but we were able to get a good sheet map, so it will have to do.  From there, back on the tram and again, in 10 minutes, we were back to our stop, and in a few more minutes we were back in our hotel room.  R is now sleeping soundly, and I am blogging and hoping to join him soon! 

Take care, and more later!

Lots of love,

m

xxx

* New piece at the Louvre!  This guy is over 9,000 years old, and comes on long-term loan from the Jordanian government.  In exchange, the Louvre and the Smithsonian Restoration Institute are helping Jordan with another ancient treasure.  He's magnificent, and is the oldest piece currently on display in the Louvre!