Lille, France

Hi there! Or should I say "salut là!"? Ok, ok, that was cheesy... But anyway, I went to France last weekend! Let me tell you all about it!

Ok right off the bat, I know what you're thinking... Katie, travelling on a Sunday? But it's the flower market day!! I know, I know, but fear not, there was a Lille Flower Market, and dare I say it was cooler? But I'm getting ahead of myself!

So this morning, it was a chilly one but my typical 30-minute walk to the Ghent Train Station warmed me right up! I hopped on my first train to Courtrai/Kortrijk, Belgium.

Side note: That's one thing that is a little silly about my area in Europe, the French and Dutch names of cities are so different and it makes travelling a little confusing.

But my train arrived in Courtrai/Kortrijk, I hopped on one of the cars at the front of the train, the trains split and we were headed towards Lille!

An hour later we were pulling into the Gare Lille (Flanders), not to be confused with Gare Lille (Europe), which is another station in Lille that almost messed me up when trying to get home...

But I hopped off my train and headed in a random direction to wander around for a bit. I found the Belfry and the Port de Paris.

Fun note: they built this to demonstrate the way to Paris because at the time this was the only road to Paris. They also have a Port de Gand, which points towards Gand. I think that's cute.

Another fun note: this is also called the Port de Malades. "Malades" = "sickness" so this is where they would ship out all of the people who had leprosy.

I was getting a little hungry for breakfast so I headed into old Lille and sat down at a terrace in the middle of the Grand Square. I had my eggs and coffee sitting in the sun and was quite content until the waiter told me they ran out of croissants! In France! Can you believe it?! But don't worry, I got one later :) But that's another sneak peak!

With a full belly, I kept exploring and walked past the Opera, the Cathedral, and Charles de Gaulle's home!

Here's the Opera House:

And here's the Cathedral. I have to say, of all the Cathedrals I've seen, this one is definitely the funkiest and perhaps even my least favourite so far! I've figured out that I'm a big fan of the massive, gothic-style churches with things poking out of all angles but this Cathedral was a little too flat for my liking.

Just past the Cathedral was the thing you've been waiting for, the Lille Flower Market. They had a huge assortment of bouquets, this flower market was almost completely bouquets whereas the one in Ghent has lots of planter flowers and some stands with bouquets so this one was very nice! They didn't have a band or live music but they had a bunch of artisanal shops of cool jewelry and yummy treats.

I kept walking and found the #1 tourist destination in Lille, Aux Merveilleux de Fred. This place almost exclusively sells Merveilleux, the dessert which I didn't really know about until standing in line to buy one. From what I gathered from the French women talking in front of me, it is a very light meringue coated in a light whipped cream and then rolled in chocolate shavings, or at least that's the traditional Merveilleux. There were a couple of flavours to choose from so I got a box of 4 mini Merveilleux. At Aux Merveilleux de Fred, they make them throughout every day to make sure that the stock is always completely fresh. They must sell thousands in a day, there was constantly a line around the block every time I walked by.

I ate one of my Merveilleux by the canal and then realized that very light meringue coated in light whipped cream and rolled in chocolate shavings is not very structurally sound so if you try to hold it, it will fall apart and stain your white coat. Whoops.

I walked along the canal for a little bit then headed to the reason I came to Lille, the fine arts museum (or the Palais Des Beaux Arts). I thought it sounded a little bit pretentious to call it a "Palace" of fine arts but I stood corrected, this museum was a palace. It was a massive, gorgeous building filled with masterpieces. I spent over 3 hours exploring all of their exhibits. I think my favourite was their exhibit of relief maps of towns in France and Belgium. The entire basement was filled with 14 of these massive maps from the 1700s. The detailing was incredible.

Here are my top 10 photos from 3 hours' worth of photos from the Palais Des Beaux Arts.

I'd also like to note that all of the signs and descriptions throughout the museum were all in French and I think I did a pretty good job understanding them!

After exploring every piece in the museum, I headed back out to the old part of Lille. There is a really cool book market in the old stock exchange building that I checked out and I was very impressed! Unfortunately, all of the books were in French and even though I could piece together what was happening at the museum, I drew the line at reading a whole book in French. There were chess games going on in the centre of the market with tons of spectators, lots of posters for sale, and the really nice smell of old books.

Finally, to complete my day in France, I had to find a fresh croissant. Luckily a very nice bakery was just next door so I got a super tasty croissant and enjoyed it while sitting on the steps of the Opera House. Then it was time for me to get back on my train and head back to Gent!