Since last I have posted, much has happened. I’ll start from the beginning! First was the visit of both of my parents! I really hope that I can express to my fullest potential how happy I am that they were able to come. Not only were they both able to come out and stay with me in Lille, but they took me on an amazing trip to Reims in the Champagne region of France, as well.
My mom and dad arrived on the Monday just after I had trained in from Amsterdam the previous day. During their stay they were quite generous by taking me to great places for every meal and I could not be more thankful for it. While I cannot complain one bit about any of the meals I have had since I have arrived, there have undoubtedly been several restaurants that have caught my eye but remained a mystery to my taste buds because of my budget. Most of the restaurants in the area are not extremely expensive – we aren’t talking about 50 euros steaks and hundred euros bottles of wine, here – but what with the exchange rate, my inability to make any more money than I saved up while I am here because of my VISA, and my lack of super rich and overly generous friends, I have been sticking to the 2 euros baguette sandwiches for lunch and 3 euros dinners at the cafeteria on campus (again, not complaining, and to clarify our cafeteria has a lot of really good food). I have nonetheless been so grateful to try all of the amazing dishes that I have since their arrival. But I’ll talk more about meals later; I was, of course, happy to see my parents for reasons other than paid dinners.
Showing my parents the city in which I have lived for the past two and a half months (even if they have seemed like a week and a half) has been a delight. Lille is a hidden gem and I feel like there are so many parallels between this city here and Seattle. Until you come, you cannot fully understand how amazing this rainy little city is. But once you have seen it, you are definitely going to want to come back or never even leave at all. It will most certainly be one of the other for me. I think that I have successfully led my parents to the same conclusion about the city, as well, as they have agreed that the people seem so much more welcoming and friendly than those they met from their previous experiences in France. Even among the French, les gens du Nord or ‘people of the North’ are known as friendly and welcoming people. I suppose it helps that Lille is not overrun with tourism and all the overpriced and imitation shops/restaurants that come with it. In addition to being witness to the kindness of les Lillois, my parents have also experienced the wonderful, once in a lifetime, personalized tour by yours truly in order to observe all the beauty and character this old city has to offer (I am open for future tours and accept tips, but my calendar is pretty booked so you will need to call ahead!). My parents are lucky to be right in the center of our city, known as Lille Centre. A mere fifty steps from their hotel is the nearest metro stop, two minutes walk and you are at the main train station, and ten minutes by metro is all it takes to reach my residence hall. So our tour started in Lille Centre and gradually reached my residence hall. Along the way, I was able to show them the main shopping areas, our main avenue where most of the students go out at night, the amazing Sacre Coeur cathedral nearest to my dorm, the city’s art museum, as well as my school and a few others of the University. Suffice to say, they reached the honeymoon phase with the city just as I did when I first arrived (and have honestly remained ever since). Perhaps I am exaggerating and they were not exactly as thrilled with the city as much as I was and still am, but they were both certainly amazed with Lille’s architecture and food, taking several pictures everywhere we went. This feeling, however, did not last too much longer…
One thing that put a major wrench in our plans is the recent protests over the increased retirement age here. In case you are not aware of the current situation, a law recently passed which increases the legal retirement age to 62 from 60. Naturally, as is custom when the French are in disagreement with the government, protests and riots have broken out and trains have been cancelled left and right. Thus our trips to Bruges and Brussels have been cancelled but luckily we were still able to rent a car to get to the beautiful champagne region of France in Reims.
Before I talk about our trip to Reims, I should say that the protests which broke out did stem from more than just an older retirement age. The French government has been making other laws lately which have forced the French to be more efficient and keep up with the global economy. The French who are protesting are not protesting against being efficient, but are protesting against the government changing their culture – work to live not live to work. That being said, I still know several French students (actually, almost all of the French students I have talked to) who disagree with the protests and agree that the government is making the right changes. It’s a touchy subject here and I think I can see both sides of it. My mom asked, “Well, do they not want to be efficient?” A valid question, perhaps, but the truth is that if I had lived the way the French had lived my entire life, I wouldn’t want my lifestyle to be changed by the government either. I suppose with the new global economy, though, they have little choice if they want to keep up with the rest of the developed countries.
Back to our trip to Reims! The champagne region was really, really gorgeous. The cathedral in Reims seemed to mimic the Notre Dame in Paris in many ways. Because it was in a smaller city with smaller buildings surrounding it, though, the cathedral seemed utterly massive. I was glad I was able to see it. The food in Reims was also phenomenal. When I say phenomenal, I am making a huge understatement, too. My parents had read about a little restaurant called Restaurant Anna where we ate not one but two of our meals while in Reims. The place had a great menu with traditional French dishes that we could not get enough of. We all tried escargot (I am proud to say that the first time I ever tried escargot was also the first time my mom had ever tried escargot) and ended up loving it. The snails were served in these small dishes with garlic butter and certain herbs, topped off with a piece of toast on the top which fit the dishes perfectly (see pictures). They could have put anything in there – snail, slug, dirt – it would not have mattered, the garlic butter concoction was incroyable! We used the bread to wipe the dishes clean of the garlic butter. Also on the table was veal medallions served with four mustards from the region, chicken rolled in cheese, beef skewers, and much, much more (see pictures, again). We were thoroughly satisfied. Of course, while in the Champagne region, eating was not the only thing we did. My parents and I also visited a few Champagneries. There was one where we took a tour of the caves – the pictures do not do them justice, but still better describe our experience than I could in words – and had a nice tasting of different types of Champagne. We learned that for Champagne, dry means sweet as opposed to not sweet as in wine. We also visited Veuve Cliquot, a very well known maker of Champagne and the maker of the champagne I actually sold when I was a waiter at Porcella Urban Market (Rest In Peace). Unfortunately, reservations for tastings at this place are necessary so we were unable to get a tasting. We still enjoyed our time at the Champagne maker next door to it where my mom found some great champagne bottles to take home with her.
On the drive back, we stopped at one point so I could practice driving our manual rental car. I had only ever learned before on my aunt and uncle’s Nissan Pathfinder (which I stalled many times) but did retain some feel from those lessons. Still, I stalled the car a few times this go around and have a bit more learning to do.
Back in Lille, my parents and I hit up the movie theatre on a rainy day to see Social Network, the movie about how Facebook was started. Great movie, we all thought. Before I left for my next trip (and my parents for theirs back home), we made our way to Brussels for one more night together and I was able to show them a few places which I had been to before. Because they had a couple more nights to stay in Brussels and I had already experienced a lot of Belgian food, I was able to convince them to take me to this hole-in-the-wall Greek restaurant near our hotel. If you don’t know already, Greek food is one of my favorites and finding good Greek food here has been a feat. So we lucked out and had a great Greek meal while we were there. The next morning, I was off for my next trip… keep posted :)
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