1st trip to France

Our first trip to France was on a soggy, rainy day.  The whole week leading up to Saturday had been full of rain.  So when we saw the forecast for Saturday, we decided we would still head out on our day trip to Lille, France.  In this part of Europe, if you don't do things because of the rain, you may never get out.  We each had our own umbrellas, but what we were really missing were rainboots.  Since then, I have ordered us some.  Tennis shoes just don't cut it.  :) 

 

 

 

 

 

Lille was a quick drive from our home-about an hour or less.  It is a city of over 2 million people.   There are a lot of pedestrian-only streets with plenty of high-end boutiques.  It looked like it would be pretty at night.  Many of the quaint streets had lights strung from one side of the street to the other. 

 

Lille Centre

 

 

Belfry and Opera House

 

 

 

Opera House

 

Paul's ---breads and pastries



Enjoying pastries at Paul's

After walking around for a bit, we found the Lille Museum of Fine Art.  (It took us a bit to find our way).  We decided to go into this museum since it was raining.  They had some very nice biblical paintings, paintings of the Dutch countryside, as well as, a few Monets' and Renoirs'.  The boys liked when we would ask them questions about certain paintings.  It was a good way to keep their attention (for a while anyway).  Good practice for when we head to the Louvre!

Lille Museum of Fine Art

Lille Grand Place

 After the museum, we found a nice French restaurant for lunch.  Michael and I had a beef stew that had ginger and beer in it.  We also tried the 4 cheese pie (kind of like a cheese quiche that was gooey in the middle.  It was good, but there must have been at least 1 strong tasting cheese in there.  Little too strong for my taste-buds, and I love cheese!  The kids had a beef burger that came without a bun and some macaroni (french style).  It was good. 

 

Our lunch spot....Le Bistrot de Pierrot

 

 

Cheers!! (Fanta for boys, vino for us)

 

Later, we tried to go to a citadel, but it was closed.  It is in the shape of the pentagon, and is what the US Pentagon was modeled after.   That was kind of a bummer.  But as we were leaving, we found a small zoo. 

 

 

We definitely would like to go back another time and try to see the citadel as well as a few other museums.