Day 2 13/1/08 - France

Lille

Highlight

• Was going to start our usual early day, but we were just too tired to wake up and since the sun wasn’t up, we didn’t go out until after 9:30am.
• Caught the metro to Wazemme Market, where on Sunday there’s a huge flee market. It was starting to buzz when we got there, and was choked full of people when we left two hours later.
• The clothes, nik naks and such wasn’t of much interest, as they are nothing compared to the markets of Asia and Africa. What we wanted to see was the food of course, but that part of the market was pretty disappointing. The usual stores that you could find outside, and not even that much to choose from.
• It was more interesting wandering around the streets. Stopped off at some bakeries for some goodies (slightly cheaper than Paris) and admired the terrains, cheese, ready to heat meal (much better than the stuff you get in London) in the shop windows.
• All the shops are meant to be closed on Sundays, but because it’s sales time, they have "exceptional openings", which was lucky for us.
• For some reason, even though we were wandering around the streets of this little square, Slokky managed to get lost. He stopped to look at the map every minute or so.
• Slokky stepped on dog poo, right after I told him to watch out for it.
• There was a whole row of the market occupied entirely by roast chicken shop (all in all I think there are at least 10 around the market), and we couldn’t resist getting one, especially accompanied by that potato soaked in the roasting fat. Grabbed a still warm baguette and headed back to our apartment to make use of the facilities for lunch.
• As we had finished seeing all the site yesterday, we only had the Citadelle left. Half the stores around had exceptional opening today, but not much people were in them.
• Stopped off to have a brief look at the Vielle Bourse, which was a building(s) with a little square inside filled with some booksellers. However, only half the stores were opened and there were no people there today.
• We wandered around the near empty streets, and found out where all the people went when we reached the Citadelle.
• Everyone was decked out in their designer sportswear and jogging around the outside of the Citadelle. After our indulgence for the past weeks, we thought we’d better have a walk around as well, so we did a very pleasant loop around.
• It was only past 2pm when we finished, and as we had run out of things to see, I could finally go back to the shops to browse to my heart’s content.
• There were lots of lovely stuff. Why is it the French shops have better stuff than everyone else even though it’s the same company? The stuff in Kookai, H&M and the like were actually better quality and better design than in Aust and London! I saw some great flats that I wanted but didn’t buy because of the lack of space. There were also these beautiful wool scarves in the best colour which I also didn’t indulge myself in. The designer stuff are also cheaper here too. There were a few pairs of Marc Jacobs flats and Chloe heels that were fabulous, and the cookware is great. We nearly got a set of Tefal ingenio pans (the ones with the removable handles), but decided to stick it out with our old ones for a bit longer, and when it finally dies we’ll invest in some top quality ones.
• We wanted to go to Carrefour but it was closed, so we didn’t end up trying that Galette de Frangipane, the one with the crown in every single shop after all. We did manage to find another supermarket, Monoprix, where we bought some discounted goods and regional goodies.
• Finished our shopping before it was acceptable dining hours, but since there was nothing to do, we decided to dine anyway. Walked around a bit before settling on a corner pub not far from the station. It was cheap and cheerful, and the waiter spoke pretty great English. The food was simple and cheap, but the servings were so huge we absolutely couldn’t move when we finished. The taste certainly didn’t compare to yesterday, but it was what we expected in the setting.

Food

• giant palmier
• flan (€1.30)
• baguette
• roast chicken (€5)
• potato soaked in roasted chicken fat (€1.60)
• waffle with sugar and butter filling
• set dinner at Le Napoleon (€13.90):
  • ham and brie salad with mustard dressing
  • 2 types of terrains
  • white bread
  • beer
  • androulette with mustard sauce, chips and salad
  • mussels a la crème with chips
  • chocolate cake with loads of cream
  • lemon sorbet and strawberry ice-cream