A not so Happy Halloween

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays and due to forces of the universe out of my control I was unable to celebrate in any way this year.  We had hoped to only be in Lille for a short time before we went on to Spain for the weekend, but there are several things going on at the moment that would not make our travel possible.

1.      It is a school holiday in France. So all the kids got this last week off of school.

2.      November 1^st is a national holiday which means that it’s a 3 day weekend for everyone. And what do all Europeans love to do on holidays? Travel. And how do most Europeans travel? By train.

So when we tried to book a train a week in advance, they were already booked up in our price zone. We checked flights as well and it was the same story.

3.      There was a change in the law this week regarding retirement age. It went from 60 to 62 and that upset a lot of French people, most of which are government workers. So there is a national strike going on at the moment and it has made it a little more difficult to travel in and out of France. Cancelled flights and trains and buses and such.

So when we tried to get a train in another country, like the Netherlands or Germany, they couldn’t help us because they could not book any trains going through France during the strike.

4.      My passport was stolen and I wasn’t sure if I could get a new one right away or if I would have to wait 2 weeks.

So we had to face the facts that we were stuck in France for the weekend. We were stuck in a country that doesn’t celebrate Halloween. You might be able to find a couple of costume stores in other cities, but in Lille I couldn’t even find a pumpkin to carve. The best we could do was pumpkin soup and I must say it was a little bland. C’est la vie.

            We did do a little bit of exploring on Halloween, so Iza could have some time in her flat by herself. We discovered a little carnival and circus in town, but just walked by. We also found the zoo, which was surprisingly free. So we walked around there and saw some very cute animals like the Red Panda (looks like a raccoon sort of), and Lemurs. It wasn’t a large zoo but they had a pretty good variety of animals.  

            I guess I will just have to live without a traditional American Halloween this year. I guess that’s part of the adventure, doing things differently. 

Red Panda

French Protest at the Lille train station.