One of the greatest perks of living in Europe is that you can visit lots of places without even having to travel very far. Last weekend we decided it was time for a short trip and we headed to
Lille. It is crazy to think that we could be there in 2 hours and a half time, and that we were already 2 countries south.
We did what we always do when exploring a new city: walk the heck out of it. And because we were in France, we had to try all the local delicatessen, in this case, the
merveilleux, a meringue filled with whipped cream and bathed in chocolate. We also had to have macarons in all kinds of exotic flavours at
Patrick Hermand and an eclaire too (how could we not?)
We went to the
zoo, and spotted a red panda; we found the Pasteur Institute and old dispensary, and we visited an e
xposition on the myth of Babel through Art at the Palais des Beaux Arts (which will be there until January 2013). The tower of books was my favorite.
I loved how Lille's architecture is both very clearly Flemish in some buildings, but remarkably French in others. It was a funny feeling, like we were in France, but not quite, as this whole North-European culture is quite similar if you compare it to Belgium and The Netherlands. We are back home now, but this left me hoping for our next city trip.
Hey Amanda! B here from The Swiss Wife-Style! Just want to say thanks again for the visit to my blog, and I'm going to try and get caught up with yours! It's great to find people who are in kind of similar situations! And I know what you mean about once you live in Europe, it's so easy to visit other places! I've been to so many places since moving here! Oh, PS, where in Switzerland is your Dad from? Ok, you'll probably see other other random comments from me throughout your blog now :) Have a great day!
ReplyDeleteHey B, great to "see" you here, and yes, I love to find people in similar situations.
DeleteMy dad is originally from Bern, but my grandma was swiss-french and the family moved to Geneva when my dad was still a child so he feels way more identified with the "suisse romande", and french is his mother tongue.
Hope you have a great day too.
Oh, Lille is an adorable town and so close too! They have so many pretty churches and the citadel is very impressive.
ReplyDeleteWe were there this winter, just when we hit the cold spell, but it was still worth it. You were there when it was extremely hot, right? Was it doable?
Yes, the citadel is impressive ! Except we wanted to go in haha.
DeleteAnd yeah we were there during the hot days, but it was totally doable, we still walked a lot, it was quite nice, really felt like summer vacation :)Whenever we were too warm we went into shops with airconditioning, the FNAC being our favorite!