Evening in Lille

Lille at night
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This evening’s excursion was back into Lille. Some people from the bus went to a restaurant but Linda and I chose to wander around. We went into a fabric remnant shop and browsed till it closed at seven. I held several beautiful lengths of cloth again me in front of a mirror but they were very dressy and I never go anywhere to wear ‘dressy’.

We then had a wander about, looking in the local foreign grocers and bought some hot chestnuts from a vendor near the ferris wheel. We chatted in broken French (I impressed myself) and broken English. He told us his brother is a professor of mathematics in Sheffield University. Linda had never eaten chestnuts and didn’t like the one she tried.

Buying hot chestnuts from the brother of a maths professor

Lille at night
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It started to get very cold so we found a café opposite the coach pick up point. We had a coffee each, a Grand Marnier each and two crepes. We decided to be very naughty and have our crepes boozy and alight. We joked with the waiter, Jean-Jacques. His English was very good. I tried to ask for the bill in French ‘excuse-moi, l’addition, s’il-vous-plait’ to which he replied ‘if you like’.

Then it was back on the bus and back to the hotel to rest ready for tomorrow's excursion to Brussels.