Friday 4 December 2009

Lille Meet Again (late entry!)

Day three was fairly low-key. Having enjoyed the art gallery the previous day, there wasn’t a great deal to do other than wander about the town. So we did. It is a rather pretty town, especially in the sunshine we enjoyed. We stopped at a self service cafe for a coffee and afterwards wandered further towards the train station where we ended up at a place that brews its own beer, the 3 Brasseurs. The beer here was excellent, and we also stopped for food which was also good. I plumped for the sausages with sauerkraut, which sounds German, but given we were in N France, not too far from Belgium wasn’t too out of character for the region. We enjoyed a few drinks here, which was even better since the place had free wi-fi so I could blog to my heart’s content.
We headed back home for a refresher, then went out again to enjoy our last night en Lille. We tried another bar we hadn’t been in called Drugstore which had a very retro 70s feel from the primary coloured dots as decoration to the Bullitt poster on the wall. They had strange seating as well, like the sort of thing you get in cinemas which fold up when you stand. Quirky, and yet pile-achingly uncomfortable. Dinner was had in a great little Moroccan restaurant, the name of which escapes me as I write this entry. The food was pretty good. I had a meatball tagine which came in a pot which was almost white hote. They were in a rich tomato sauce. Jane had an olive lemon chicken tagine which had in it probably more than a full jar’s worth of the little green buggers. Wine was a bit meh, but drinkable. We came out of there and went into a couple more bars, firstly in the place we had first had a drink after we arrived, Vice Versa. This had THE best lighting effects I’ve ever seen. They had a couple of lasers red and green which were scattered and produced a fantastic speckled effect across the room, lots of bright points of light moving all over the place like phosphorescent ants. Truly amazing and actually quite hypnotic. I was enjoying the Belgian beer, Jane was on the caiparinhas. WE went to yet another bar in the little sector of the city, again the name of which escapes me. We continue more of the same Belgian beer versus caiparinhas. Thie cocktails were memorable for having glowsticks in them which was a nice touch. Then it was off to bed the more drinks, the merrier.
Next morning we were up for our last French breakfast, walked to the station and caught the Eurostar back to Blighty. Of this there isn’t a great deal to report, apart from the fact that they do insist on you being there ages in advance for some reason. Border crossings, what can you do?
Kings Cross was unremarkable, as was our trip home from there. Then I had the joy of a dental visit when I got home, forcing me to miss my usual Tuesday aerobics.

So Lille was a pleasant enough place, though not the sort of place we'd be in a hurry to get back to as there is so much more of the world to see.