Monday 27 April 2009

A Lille Adventure in France!

Last weekend, my boyfriend and I went to Lille in France because he had to work over there. We traveled business class on the way out, which for 10 pounds more, I highly recommend. The seats are 1/3 bigger and champagne, wine, and dinner are included.

Statues of angel and demon babies were there to meet us upon arrival. They were on display for the Dan Brown/Tom Hanks “Angels & Demons” movie coming out soon. Why gigantic baby statues in a small French town and not London or Paris, I have no idea. Anyway, the horned babies struck poses in the sky with their bat-like wings and their long slithery tails. They were truly gruesome chic!

To sum up Lille, the food wasn’t brilliant. Lots of restaurants catering for tourists who will be there only once. The large art museum in the center of town had as its main display a video piece about a woman in a pod who zooms to Istanbul from London. Sounds cool, but basically, she spills water in her pod seat and her lettuce leaf salad dinner flies away. Oh no! I’ve ruined the ending for you. On the same Turkish theme, there was a short film about slaughtering cows in Turkey. It was absolutely heart wrenching, but mesmerizing. I haven’t eaten meat since. Is this really art – watching cows being slaughtered?

On a lighter note, the best part about the art museum was the hot chocolate in the café. It was wonderful, thick, creamy with a foam top heavenly hot chocolate. My boyfriend said it tasted like Charbonnel & Walker drinking chocolate. I recommend buying some and trying it at home.

The only crafty place I could find (not counting the one store with card tables spread out with some random assortment of the worst fabrics I have ever seen – really gruesome and not at all chic) was on outdoor market with tons of vintage books and one stall in the middle with vintage postcards, stamps, and letters. Here’s one of the gorgeous postcards I found for 1 Euro. I can’t wait to use it in a craft. If anyone would be interested in the vintage postcards, let me know and I may post them as a download.

So after moules et frites (mussels & chips) for lunch and moules et frites for dinner, we happened upon a funfair. I was so excited to see what a French funfair was like. Much the same as at home in the US – packs of teenage boys walking with their trousers sagging down showing their underwear butts and baseball caps perched on top of their head (truly balancing on top – odd) following packs of girls with too much eye make-up. All of the rides were painted with a South American or USA theme. Lots of wonky knock off Mickey Mouses.

To sum up Lille – For a medieval city, go to Brugges in Belgium instead.

Stay tuned – Coming up tomorrow – gruesome chic French sticky tattoos and French burlesque. (This burlesque theme seems to be following me lately…)


She should cover up or she's going to catch a chest cold.

6 comments:

A Bite of Country Cupcakes said...

Mussles and chips for lUnch....How that would make my Husband so happy!
Sounds like a wonderful way to travel.
Thanks for popping by my blog too...
Yours is very adventure filled will be back to read more:)

Ele at abitofpinkheaven said...

Thanks for stopping by! Wow! Sounds like an exciting time.

Unknown said...

Oh sounds like a great trip! Have read the books (Dan Brown) so looking fwd to the film. However I doubt anthing that exciting will be announcing it's comming lol(UK)

Like the quirky side to this blog.

The post card you showed it's Di-vine love it. Keep saying will goto France (I'm 40 this year) but we sadly cannot afford it so off to lakes in stead me thinks.

Love Dawn xx

Oh and thanx for visiting my blog xx

Unknown said...

Hi Michele , thankyou for visiting and following my blog , it's nice to meet you .

kadler said...

Haha... agree about the coat.

But the trip sounds great! Sorry the food wasn't perfect. At least you got to go first class :)

LittleCakes said...

Sounds like a fun trip. Mussels and fries for lunch and dinner??? Could definately do! The postcard is precious! Fun checking in!