Beanie Went To Lille, Day Three

Last Wednesday, we got up for breakfast, and I did my French!!! Panno Shoko Lah See Voo Play - and it worked!! I got chocolate bread!!

After breakfast, we went to the Post Office nearby and posted cards to Hammie, Winston and Coco and Sullivan. The cards arrived before we got home to blog about it!!

On our way into town, we met Michael Jackson and I did some disco dancing with him!!
Sunshine....... Moonlight....... blame it on the BOOGIE!!!

Then we went up to Gare Flanders and got some Subway tickets. Oh, it's called Metro in France, isn't it? Lille Metro trains are all automated and don't have drivers!!
They're great fun!! The guide book says it's fun to take the Metro all the way to the end of the line, because the train comes overground and does a funfair ride over the countryside!!
We didn't have time to do that though, which is a shame.

We got off at the Beaux Art stop which is the one for the art museum in town.

They have sculptures at the Metro station!!

That's the Art Museum!!! Wow, that's some building!!

We went past this sculpture too...

They have a fountain thing outside the museum as well!! It's pretty!!

We got our ticket!! It's valid all day, and we can go out for lunch and come back again later on the same ticket if we want to. The lady at the ticket counter said so.

According to the museum map thing, the paintings and drawings are all upstairs on the first floor, and that's what we wanted to see!!

They didn't have many paintings that Andrea liked, but they did have this one by some Dutch guy called Vincent that she'd never heard of before!! She was very excited about that!!

The ground floor of the museum has the pottery things on and the gift shop, but the gift shop was shut down, with no things in to look at or buy!! We were very upset about that. Downstairs in the basement they had the ancient archaeology things which we didn't want to go see, so....

We went out for coffee!!!!

Andrea told me about this thing called Pa Tee Can Can which turned out to be another sculpture thing.

The chap at the top wrote a poem about the lady sitting down, who's a lace maker with no money.

That's her baby there, who has a toy jester in it's bed!

Then we went for lunch! We started off with a very yummy creamy soup!!

And then we got this huge ENORMOUS salad!! Andrea said that if she knew it was going to be this big, she wouldn't have ordered it!!!!! It had toasty things with mozarella cheese on, deep fried camembert cheese and a cheesey quiche. We didn't finish it!!

And then we had a coffee that came with a mini meringue!!

Andrea said I could eat the meringue because I've never had one before.

It was YUMMY!!!

Then we went Window Shopping.

I like Window Shopping!! You don't do it to buy windows, you do it to see what's IN the window!!! That's funny!!

Then we found this Cathedral which is called the Notre Dame on the map. It's quite a modern one.

It had a very old building next to it. Andrea said it might be Bell Tower but she's not sure.

The Cathedral wawsn't open yet but it had a little shop next to it selling Artisan things so we lost some art and then had a look in the shop.

The Cathedral door had some interesting sculpture things on it.

Then we remembered that Hammie was going to Grannie Oma's funeral today, so we decided to light a candle. Andrea had enough money for two candles, so we lit one at Saint Rita's candle stand - that's ours at the front. We decided we'd send the other one to Hammie so he could see what it looks like.

Then we discovered the next statue was of our patron Saint, St Anthony of Padua!! He's the patron saint of lost things, and Grannie Oma had lost some of her memories..... I wonder if he's her patron saint as well?? I hope St Rita has a word with him......

That's the stained glass window we saw at the front of the building.

We did more Window Shopping afterwards, and found a family of Piggies!!!

And we found my Mouse family!!!

Then Andrea took me to a very special place called Meert. It has a restaurant, and a tea room (where we went!) and at the front, a pastry shop and a chocolate shop!

Andrea got us a Cafe Creme which came with two chocolates free!! And she got a Palett Des Dames which is a shortbread thing with lemon icing on the top and a little piece of chocolate!

IT WAS FABOOOOOO!!!!!

http://www.meert.fr/

After that, the sun tried to come out.

We went back to the hotel to chill out for a bit. I've got a new Stamp in my Passport!!

Look at all the shopping we did!!!

Andrea showed me some little beads she bought that looked like ladybugs! I said we should put them in a box for Hammie to cheer him up. That's a very good idea!!!

Then we opened the Meert box to see what was inside! They're stretched out Stroopwaffels!!

(ed's note: Beanie had one for dinner on Thursday when we got home. He says they're like stroopwaffels with vanilla paste stuffing in the middle and taste wonderful!!!)

Afterwards, we did some more Window Shopping. YUM!!

It's another Sullivan!!!

Coo! Look at that muriel!!

Let's go down here, we've not been there before....

A WOOL SHOP!! We went in here and Andrea bought some!

We saw this giant lady bug!!!

Later on, we went back to the Melting Pot for dinner again!!

We had the Thai style spicey soup again because I loved it so much on Tuesday!!

Then we had the Ravioli. We didn't think this was quite as good as the fish we had ..... the ravioli seemed a little dry round the edges.... but it was still yummy though!

And then we had a Creme Brulee!!

We had one of these in Paris when we got stranded - but I think this one tasted better!!

And then as finished it off with a Cappucino coffee covered in whipped cream!!

YUMMY!!

I love going to dinner in France with Andrea!!!

http://www.meltingpotrestaurant.fr/

And then it was bed time....zzzzzzzzzzzzz..............

Beanie went to Lille, Day Two

On Tuesday 23rd February, we got up and had breakfast at the Youth Hostel.

Then we went back upstairs and packed out things.

We're going on Holiday to Lille today!!! I'm so excited!!

We went down the road to St Pancras and got there for 10 o'clock, just like the lady said on Monday.

Andrea had to put me in Suitcase to go through the X ray machine, but took me out again the other side so I could see what was happening. Here we are in Departure Lounge!!

And then we got on the train!!

I had a look at Andrea's Phrase Book so I could learn how to ask for Chocolate Bread.

Panno Shoko Lah See Voo Play

Hmm, that seems easy enough!

Then we had a look at the Guide Book And Map.....!

They gave us a drink on the train!! Gosh, they never did that last time... maybe they know we're not going to get stranded and they're being nice??

We watched ourselves going through England towards the Tunnel!!

And then they came round and gave us lunch!!

We had a potato salad which was yummy, and chicken with vegetables and a bread and butter pudding (not so nice).
While Andrea wasn't looking, I put two teaspoons in her bag, and when she finished drinking her apple juice, I put the glass in her bag too!

And nobody noticed!!!

WE'RE IN FRANCE!!!!!

Going through the tunnel only takes 30 minutes and now we're IN FRANCE!

YIPPEE!!

And here we are at Lille Europe Station!!

how exciting, I've never been here before....!

Andrea said that on the map, our hotel didn't seem too far from the station so we thought we'd have a walk down this road.

That looks like it's going into town...

And 20 minutes later, here we are at our hotel!!

Excellent!!

We got a big double bed all to ourselves!!

Not much of a view, but we didn't come here to look out of the window!!

And we even got free soap and shampoo in the bathroom!
They're Beanie sized, too!

Here's me and Andrea checking out the bathroom. Seems all sparkly and clean!

We had another look at the map.

Andrea said the pink bits are called Pedestrian, which means cars aren't allowed there and it's safe for us to walk round, so we decided that's what we'd do!

First of all, we spotted this monument! I don't know who he is though.....

Then we saw a Hippopotamus restaurant!!

I hope they don't cook hippos in there......!

this is in the Big Square in the middle of Lille...

We found out later that you can walk through the middle of this building and there's a surprise when you do!!

And they have this fancy clock too....

I love that clock....

And that's the Opera House!

Our hotel was very near here!!

Gosh, I like Lille!!

OH!! What a funny building!!

OH!!! And a funnier Bell Ringer!!!

This is another lovely building!!

Oh wow!! They have lots of lovely buildings here!!

We found out later that the gold sun on this building is a reference to King Louis Kins who was also known as the Sun King.

Andrea said he was "So Up Him Self, He Thought The Sun Shone Out Of His...." OH!!

Andrea, that's RUDE!!!!!!!

Then we saw this wonderful Chocolate Shop!! We'll have to stop here to Spend some Money!!

I WANT THIS CHAIR!!!!

AND THOSE CAKES!!!

I begged and begged and BEGGED Andrea to get me this chair but she kept saying her suitcase wasn't big enough to pack it.

But why can't you get a bigger suitcase then??

We then found La Droguerie!!

We found this shop in Paris and they have one in Lille too!! LET'S GO IN!!

Andrea took this picture of me being excited looking at all the stuff in the shop, but then one of the sales people came over and said we weren't allowed to take pictures.

Poo, they have loads of fabulous beads and buttons and stuff.....!

On the way someplace else, we saw these giant Clogs!!

Andrea says she thinks this is War Memorial.

On the left is the Tourist Information place and we got postcards here for Hammie.

Andrea said that Gea was going to bring Hammie to Lille this week but his Grannie Oma died and they had the funeral to do. Oh. I said well maybe we can do some Important Shopping and find some funny things that would Cheer Up Hammie. Andrea said that was a Very Good Idea!!!

Later on, we saw this building which had a Muriel painted on it!!

Can you tell which bit is painted, though? It's very clever!!

We then found this restaurant called La Table Marocaine, which Andrea had heard about on Internet. She said it's a Morrocan restaurant that had Belly Dancers in!!! OH!

But it looks a bit closed down though, and had a Big Sign on window saying something which Andrea didn't quite understand.

Then we looked up to the top of the building and saw that one of the windows was burnt out!

Andrea says she thinks the restaurant is not going to be open while we're here....

Where are we going to eat then???! I hope we find somewhere....

On the way back to Hotel, we walked through the middle of that orange building in the square that we showed you earlier.

It has a big Courtyard in it, and it's a bookseller's market!!!

Isn't it BRILLIANT?!?!

When we got back to Hotel, we wrote our postcards. Andrea said she saw Post Office nearby so we can post them on Wednesday.

This is our Shopping from Drogueries!! We got fancy buttons, some yarn to do Knitting with and they gave me a postcard with Mice on!!

How fab is that?!?!?

When we got hungry, we went to a nearby restaurant called Melting Pot. We had Thai Style spicey soup with coconut and crevettes in and it was DELICIOUS!

Then we had Dorade Fish with rice and vegetables!!

And then we had my Favourite-est Pudding Ever!!

It was a Chocolate Cake that was Gooey on the inside, served Hot with Custard!

I LOVE THIS PUDDING!!!
Andrea always gets me the best-est food!!

And then we had a Cappucino coffee!

But it doesn't look like the Cappucino's we get in England!!!

YUM!!

Melting Pot restaurant! It's open Lunch time as well as dinner, and when we arrived at 7:30, there was only two tables (for 2 people each) left that weren't reserved. So we reserved a table for Wednesday night before we left!!!

This place gets Very Busy!!

We had an Evening Stroll round the square after dinner.

I sang a song outside the Opera House too!!!

Oh Solay Mi Miii!!!! Asta La Boooooo........!!!

And then we went to bed!!

What an exciting day.....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..........