Lille, France

Our first day in Europe! We left Indiana at about 8am on Saturday, flew from Chicago to Washington, DC in the afternoon, then caught a red-eye to Brussels in the evening. Did I sleep on the plane? Of course not! All that free milk and all those movies - are you kidding???? Besides, people kept steppin' on my tail!

We touched down in Brussels around 7:00 am (that's a little after midnight, Chicago time). After waiting over an hour at passport control in Brussels, we picked up the luggage, and zipped on the metro to the Midi station, where we caught a high-speed train (TGV) to France. Then, we kept going nonstop till late Sunday night! (I have no idea how these 50-year-old people do it. I personally had droopy whiskers long before 10pm!).

The first overnight stop in Europe on this trip was in Lille (the 'i' is pronounced like the 'i' in 'little'; and the 'e' is pronounced like 'uh'). Because Deb's mom's family is believed to have gotten their name from this town, and because it was only a short train ride from the places we wanted to visit in West Flanders, we decided to spend a night here and check it out.

These first pics are taken as we walked from the Lille Europe station to our hotel, which was only 2 or 3 blocks away. It had started to rain, so we didn't take many pics that day. Loved the super contemporary buildings here, and this funky flower sculpture (the building in the background IS the train station):
Above is really our first view of Lille as we walked out of the train station. It is NOT the most touristy city. It's gritty, if anything - but a fascinating mix of medieval, modern glass-and-steel, and even a little art deco.
This was our first destination: The Hotel Chagnot - part of the Balladins chain. We arrived around noon, realized that NOBODY spoke English, and thought, "wow, this is going to be an interesting city!" Since our room was not yet ready, we dumped the luggage and went outside to find lunch.

Immediately we realized, (JOY OF JOYS!) that our hotel was perched on top of a brewery: Les 3 Brasseurs!!! Had we been travelling all day and all night with no sleep? Yup!! Had we eaten a proper breakfast or lunch? Nope!!! Were we going to miss out on an opportunity to drink French beer? NO WAY!!! And so we did! Here's me (and my "pets," Jeff and Deb), trying to stay awake and dry under the awning of Les 3 Brasseurs while they readied our room:

We decided early on in this trip that:

a) beer is cheaper than food here;

b) beer is technically liquid bread and therefore is an acceptable substitute for food;

c) we never had to drive a car on this trip;

d) Europeans seem to like little, yellow kitties who order beer!

(yeah, you figure it out)

Below is a view across the street, taken from our hotel room window in Lille, during a short reprieve from the constant "drizzle weather," which you probably already know, cats hate! Note the mix of old and new architecture.

Next, we headed off to Belgium to visit our first Belgian brewery (which I'll tell ya about in the next blog!!!).

The pictures below were taken from our hotel window (the next day, when it actually didn't rain at all!). In the foreground, you can see the train station Gare du Lille Flandres - the station we used to take the regional train in and out of Belgium. In the background, you can see the Gare du Lille Europe - the big, modern station where the high-speed trains come and go.

After a wonderful night of bar hopping in Ingelmunster, Belgium, we caught a train back to Lille and had a very restful sleep (except for when they came and hosed down the streets and sidewalks at 4am!).

Here's a couple of night shots we took at the Gare Flandres station (inside and outside) and then of our hotel from out in front.

The next morning, after breakfast on the rooftop terrace, we went for a walk to take in some of the old-town sights in Lille, then went back for our luggage and headed out for our next adventure in Belgium. Here's me and Jeff, just chillin' on the rooftop terrace overlooking the Lille Flanders train station and eatin' breakfast.


This big tower/belfry is part of the city hall. Built in 1932, it rises 104 metres above the city, making it strikingly tall. We were drawn to it and had to take a walk to check it out.


These amazing, massive figures support the corners on the Lille town hall belfry. Same belfry, different angle. We were surprised at how close by they built this ugly 1960s mod apartment complex. Below are some street scenes we enjoyed on our walk around Lille.

Big, beautiful church in Lille.

Well, that's enough for one night, eh? Meet me, Gumballhead, back here in a few days, and I'll backtrack a little and tell ya a little about our first-day adventure in Belgium before we returned to Lille for the night (remind me to tell ya the story of the border guards with the big guns)!

;)