Lille

So, our grand adventure to the Continent this weekend was slightly diminished by our missing the ferry on Saturday morning due to the fact that we had forgotten to pack our passports. Thus, we had to go Sunday morning instead. Saturday we were supposed to spend in Bruges with cousin Ardas and her friends and then Zac and I were going to stay the night at a b&b in Bruges, but that didn't happen. Belgium will have to wait for another weekend adventure (see another post for what we did instead!).
However, Lille was fantastic! My (Erica's) cousin lives there as an au pair and let us stay with her. We saw the old town and went into an old stock exchange building that is now a book market (of great appeal to Zac and I). Besides books you could buy old photographs, maps, stamps, coins, old postcards, etc. I did buy a few old coins including a franc from 1938.
From there we walked down the cobblestone streets to Meert, a famous waffle place with unusual storefront and interior decor, and got their signature waffles (2 very thin soft wafers with vanilla creme between) and to a bakery to buy (of course) French bread. Other food items purchased: Camembert (fantastically delicious cheese similar to brie), some Bordeaux wine from 2005 (purportedly a good year) and some little mints that Ardas said were "very French."
After this, we went to an exhibition hall with live music, story-telling and art displays, walked through a park and ate French fries (highly recommended).
The weather was lovely, the food good, and it was great to see cousin Ardas!
See our pictures here.