lille, france part deux

Before we went to dinner at Brasserie Andre we wanted to walk through the city square and Christmas market at night. Marco had the romantic idea to take a ride on the ferris wheel.  As you can see from my expression in the photo above, I have  - unknowingly - acquired a new found fear of heights in my old age!  So while Marco was snapping away at the beautiful city views of Lille at night, I am trembling and holding on for dear life.  Half laughing, half crying.  In my defense, there were no seatbelts.  I'd say by the last go around I finally relaxed and enjoyed the view.

Dinner was great.  Brass and mahogany filled rooms and charismatic (older men) servers in crisp white jackets gave the restaurant a classic french vibe.  Marco and I, pleased with our dinner local selection, whispered and giggled to each other trying to decipher the french menu.  After a few awkward but kind exchanges with our server letting him know our French was minimal we pointed to and roughly pronounced our course selections on the menu. While I was pretty certain of what my selections were (poisson soupe followed by moules frites, DUH) Marco on the other hand picked croquettes followed by who-the-hell-knows-what.  Hilarious.  My fish/seafood soup was amazing and his croquettes were pretty good too.  Marco's main course ended up being a boneless chicken breast in a rich cream sauce paired with buttered linguine.  Bored at first by it, he ended up pleased.  All in all a good time.  No dessert, we needed room for booze.  Next stop the bars!

check out that mountain of frites

We headed to the old town for some drinks.  We stumbled upon a lively bar, La Capsule. Warm, dark, and gritty with an amazing beer selection.  By coincidence the beer shop (some American microbrews in the window caught our eye, rare find in Europe) we stopped in the next day, L'Abbaye des Saveurs, is owned by the same guys.

marco at la capsule

my new kicks

walk back to our hotel, a light tunnel of sorts that runs for blocks

Saturday we headed to the Palais ds Beaux Arts de Lille.  The scale and technique of the medieval and Renaissance collections blew me away.  My favorite was seeing the Spanish collection containing works by Goya, Greco, and Picasso.

oh haaaaay monet

   Next up in part 3, I'll lay down our French basketball game experience!

lille, france part 1

Last weekend we left Henry with my Uncle Ashley and Aunt Denise in East Horsley, just outside London, and took a three day trip to Lille, France.  The main reason for visiting was to surprise Marco's friend, Ian, who plays for Cognac in the French basketball league. This was an away game for him but it was just a short chunnel ride for us so Marco thought it would be awesome to surprise Ian and get to see him play!  (Marco and Ian go way back to VA beach and JMU days).

About an hour drive from London, we took the chunnel from Dover, England to Calais, France.  Then drove another hour and 15 to Lille.



News shops, duty free, and a cafes to browse while waiting for your train call

Just like the Italian Job

35 minutes wasn't even enough time to finish an article

BAM!  And we were there like that!  Lille is the largest city in the north of France and close to the border shared with Belgium.  Upon arrival, right away we noticed Belgium's beer culture influence on the city and Marco was giddy.  Cafes full of people sipping chalice's of French or Belgian beer.  We spent Friday shopping, browsing cheese shops, bakeries, and the Christmas market. 

Have you ever stayed at a hotel Ibis?  A nice tip from Marco's well travelled parents.  Usually situated in good locations, Ibis is always a clean, affordable, no frills.    This was our best Ibis experience to date.  Rooms are small but updated.  Bring your own shampoo, etc.  They don't even have a pen to spare at the front desk.  But that bed was comfortable!

A day of shopping: new wool coat from ZARA for Marco.  Burgundy waxed skinnies from ZARA and new brown oxfords from Clarks for me.  My go to walking booties got a hole in the sole and were failing me in the rain.  And these bad boys, were not made for walking miles.





Le Palais Des Beaux Arts de Lille



After a day of wandering in the drizzle, we headed back to Ibis to relax and find a good dinner spot via the internets.

our ibis cocktail hour

living in your parents basement

My husband, Marco, and I moved into my parents house December 2011.  True blue suburbs!  Our lease was up in our apartment in Arlington, Virginia and we wanted to save a little cash money for our upcoming wedding.  In the back of our minds we had BIG plans to move to Europe post nuptials.

some of our furnishings inhabiting my parents basement

I had every intention to start writing posts (getting through the blog growing pains) while living at my parents house before we made the big move.  Of course wedding planning took up more free time than I had hoped, so blogging our musings from my parents basement never came to be.  Though, duh, each Friday and Saturday night, 2 saisons or pinot noirs deep, I talked a big game about getting the blog up and running SOON.



extensive library of VHS

my dad used take blockbuster rented videos to

work and copy them for eternal home viewing

our art stowed away

henry enjoying suburbia life while my brother mows the lawn

 Flash forward to now.  We got married at King Family Vineyards in Charlottesville, Virginia in May 2012.  Throughout the time of living with my parents both Marco and I were looking for jobs throughout Europe.  Something promising finally started to develop in May, yada yada yada, Marco secured a job and here we are living in the Cambridgeshire, UK area!  We appreciate my parents so much for allowing us (and our slobbery English bulldog, Henry) to live with them while we settled out the next chapter in our lives.

We look forward to posting often (hey Washington, D.C. and Va Beach family and friends!)  Enjoy a few more images below from living at my parents house.  (Not pictured: the desktop computer)