I took a little trip into the unknown the other day. Having made it a tradition to go abroad on my birthday, I decided that i wouldnt let circumstances dictate and hopped off on the Eurostar train on my own. Fully equipped with passport, camera, warm clothes and a Marks and Spencer lunch (I needed some shred of Anglo-comfort on my first day), I had all I needed as I breezed through the brand spanking new St Pancras Eurostar station, waved through the relevant passageways by men and women wearing long shiny trenchcoats of the future (not dissimilar from those in the Pet Shop Boys number 1 hit Go West), and excitingly onto the train 178 miles South West onto Le Continent.

I wouldn’t go so far as to call Lille exciting. In fact, there are few places I have been which I’d call exciting, but plenty which were lovely and scenic of which I had no regrets visiting.

Lille was no exception – the Old Town (Vieux Lille) was absolutely charming with its cobbled streets, Flemish-Baroque european style houses and stylish Antique, Boutique and Coffee houses. Rue De Monnaie and Rue Esquermoise proved to be two of the most popular and beautiful streets – though it was quite amusing attempting to work out the translation of some of the more interestingly named streets. (Babelfish for Rue De Trois Molettes – Street of Three Serrated Rollers??) Rue Esquermoise also was home to the famous Meert Patisserie, a lavishly decorated shop with rows of gorgeously crafted cakes and pastries ogled at by passerbys and tourists.

 

Vieux Lille is one of many areas which leads back to Le Grand Place, a pedestrianised square officially known as Place Du General De Gaulle after Lille’s most famous son, the centre of the city and where most the action begins and ends. There is a statue ‘La Colonne De La Deesse’, The Pillar of The Goddess, which stands high on top of a fountain and overlooks the dozens of typical Flemish-style buildings around the square. On one end of Le Grand Place is the Vieille Bourse, the old Stock Exchange building with a richly coloured exterior, nowadays housing a small market selling old books, postcards and other assorted knick-knacks. Passing through the Vieille Bourse, onto the other side is Place Du Theatre, home of the Opera house and Le Chamber de Commerce et d’Industrie, which actually is much more pretty than it sounds.

Slightly further away in the Gambetta District was Wazemmes Market, with its busiest day, Sunday, an ideal time to suffer a panic-attack for any Agoraphobe. From furniture and flowers, 99c shower gels and cheap plastic jewellery, roast chicken and itsy-bitsy thongs, (yes, deliberate juxtaposition) to fake football jerseys and the arbitrary loud shouty fruit stall sellers, it certainly catered for everyone. In terms of getting there, I quite enjoyed the Metro, where I could get a ‘Zap’ ticket for 60 cents which allowed for travel up for up to three stops. Buying a little paper ticket and stamping it in the big yellow machine brought me waves of nostalgia from my Dutch days.

A couple of other attractions included Cathedrale Notre-Dame De La Treille, a horribly modern-looking mega slab of concrete from the outside (if you see the photo, I bet you would have thought that was scaffolding too), redeemed by the beautiful stained-glass windows visible from the inside. Also worth a visit was the Palais Des Beaux-Arts (Palace of Fine Arts), but in my opinion only on the first Sunday of the month which is free (yey!). This is not because the Palace held pretentiously crappy art exhibits such as a chunk of beef suspended from a piece of string (Modern art my a**), but because as an individual with particularly low tolerance for paintings, the only area I was interested in was the Sculpture, which featured pieces from Rodin and in my eyes had much more room for credibility and awe. (Sorry but the sheer skill of every curve, indent, line and arch holds much more sway with me than blots of paint on paper. Its also so much more awesome-looking.)

Chuffed as I was with my ability to see all that was worth visiting in Lille in 1.5 days, I decided to venture slightly further out towards Le Citadel, an ominous fortress designed in a pentagonal design, which allegedly became the inspiration for America’s own ‘The Pentagon’. The Citadel is still active as it hosts a NATO-aligned unit from the French Army, though its such a big bloody thing surrounded by a trench that even my trusty walking boots couldn’t get me in. Luckily, I had more luck getting into the city Zoo (gratuit aussi – i heart freebies), where I gawked like a kid at a candy store at panthers, meerkats, monkeys and zebras. Unfortunately there were no white tigers, bears, penguins or walruses, much to my disappointment. I did see one compound full of pigeons though. Score.

If you’re still reading this after all this spiel, i do applaud you. After describing what I saw in Lille, I leave you with my sentiments. On the eve of my 24th birthday, it snowed in Lille. This after bouts of sun, cloud, and rain – it was as if I never left the shores of Blighty. Well, i got to thinking, as one ought to do when a birthday comes around. I thought it was mighty nice of the The Powers That Be to make it snow for me, and that while it marked the end of a happy and healthy year, it was a nice way of saying hey, this year won’t be too bad either. Like a second-coming of New Years Resolutions (nearly all of which I have forgotten), I felt independent, and as if le monde was my huitre. (World. Oyster.) I enjoyed the solitude of walking around mysterious streets alone, allowing my fingers to risk amputation in order to take a good photo in the snow, re-discovering little joys like watching the world go by one cuppa tea at a time.

It makes me remember that there is still a lot of living to do, whether its out exploring the world or taking the time to appreciate the warmth of my duvet and a lie in on Sunday mornings. Sounds like a plan…