Although we only spent a little over one day in France, on our way to England from Belgium, it was a memorable experience. Part of the reason we stopped in Lille is because my great-grandmother was born near there before emigrating to the United States with my great-grandfather after the war. When I saw how easy it was to get there, I knew we needed to visit. Because of this family heritage and my many years of French, I’ve always been dying to go to France, and we didn’t have time to go to Paris, so Lille seemed perfect.
Well, after the charm of Belgium, Lille was kind of shocking, as it’s not a charmingly preserved medieval town like Bruges, but sometimes a dirty, modern city (this was not helped by our truly terrible hotel room). There is certainly charm to be found, in the beautiful main square and the old cathedrals, but what we enjoyed the most was, not surprisingly, the French food. Lille is right on the border of Belgium, meaning it was easy to find my favorite Belgian beer (still can’t get enough of Kasteel Donker), and their food is also influenced by this region. The crepes were true French crepes, and the main meal we had, one dinner, was completely perfect. My goat cheese pasta was the hit of the table, although E’s sausages could certainly hold their own.
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