French Reconnaisance Part Une

hotel (Mercure Lille)

A Winter Holiday in France

For many years, I have fantasized about retiring in France. The fantasy usually featured me living with some land where I could house every stray beast that came my way, and bicycling into the village for my baguette and cheese. I decided to finally take some steps towards fulfilling this fantasy by doing a reconnaissance to find the ideal village. 

Window-shopping in Lille is worth the ticket!

I flew from Phnom Penh to Hong Kong, and from Hong Kong to Paris. It was a long journey. When I arrived at Charles de Gaulle in Paris, the next task of my journey was to find the airport train station. It was much easier than I had envisioned. I had booked a train ticket to Lille, a town close to the border with Belgium. This was based on two recommendations, one from Rick Steve's travel guide. His advice was, that if you are not staying in Paris, to book your train travel directly from the airport. Good call. The second recommendation was from a work colleague who had lived in Belgium. She told me that when she had lived in Belgium, she and her friends often visited Lille because it was so lovely. 

The Kindness of French Strangers

I know that French people have a reputation of being rude, but I am here to say without a doubt that this stereotype is VERY wrong. I was met with kindness and patience throughout this entire trip. At the Charles de Gaulle train station, I approached two railway employees with a question about my train. I started off in French. One of the young men encouraged his friend to use his English with me, which he did, shyly and helpfully. When boarding the train, I had to find a QR code on my phone. The man checking the QR codes patiently took me through my emails to the correct place and sent me on my way. On the train, I desperately needed a coffee. I went to the restaurant car, and the lady working behind the counter patiently took me through the menu, helping me to figure out exactly what it was that I wanted (and needed). 

I could see from google maps that my hotel (Mercure Lille) was close to the train station, so I decided to walk there with my suitcases (after decades of travel, I have still not become a successfully light packer, but at least on this trip I was only heaving two suitcases and a purse). I got lost. Again, I depended on the kindness of strangers to turn me around and point me in the right direction. 

"The Lacemaker" statue refers to a Lillois lullaby.

After checking in at the hotel (again, such patient, helpful people), I set off for a walk. I decided to take a city tour, something I don't often do (I'm not sure why, because it's a terrific way to become oriented in a new city). It was such a good decision! The bus took us to all the different areas of Lille, and the commentary was interesting and informative. 

The next day, I was awake extremely early (jet lag), so I decided to go out to take some photographs while the streets were relatively empty. At this point, I had forgotten about one of the huge differences between northern locales, and countries near the equator. In Cambodia, the sun rises and sets quickly, at around 6AM and 6PM. In northern France, it was DARK well after 7AM. I was wandering around in the pitch dark. It was lovely and calm, but not great for photographing. 

I was starving, so promptly at 6:30, I returned to the hotel for my breakfast. I was the first person in the dining room. I filled up a plate with yummy bread and cheese (to be a mainstay of my time in France), and decided to try what I thought was a hard-boiled egg. No. It was a raw egg, waiting to be cooked on a tiny skillet. Sometimes it takes a few tries for me to figure things out. 

After breakfast, I set out again. A lot of the time (99% of the time), when I am exploring a new city, I pick a destination and never actually make it, or it takes me hours and hours to get there. This isn't because I'm bad at directions, but because I get distracted, and tend to turn down interesting streets, and just want to see what's around the next corner. Not an 'efficient' way of travelling, and it can be exhausting sometimes because I tend to want to check out just one more place before resting, but it's my way. 

I made a pact with myself to make a little zentangle every day when I stopped for coffee. 

Lille introduced me to the extraordinary business hours of France, and particularly of restaurants. Many museums open very late in the day (particularly for someone operating on Asian time), and restaurants have quite strict times when specific types of food are served. 

I spent two nights in Lille, then embarked on the next leg of my trip. I rented a car from Avis in Lille, and set off for Veules-les-Roses, on the Normandy coast.