Wining and Dining in Lille

Well, we set off for Lille (which is near the French and Belgian border) on Wednesday, and should have arrived on Wednesday. But after 7 hours on the train, somehow we ended up in Basel, Switzerland (which is no where near the French and Belgian border). I have no idea how that happened, but it did, so we had to wait a few hours in Basel to get a night train to Amsterdam. After a 12 hour night train (sleeping in a reclined chair) we arrived in Amsterdam. From there it was another 3 hour train ride to Lille. We finally arrived and were met by our friends François and Barry.

             François and Barry have been wonderful to say the least. They have welcomed us into their home, and their sister’s home, and their brother’s home, and their mother’s home. We are staying with Barry’s sister, Iza, who lives in the center of Lille, because they live in the country and thought it would be easier for us to get around in the city.  We could not be more grateful to Iza for opening her home to us to giving up her bed.

François’ family owns a couple of restaurants and a large catering company, so we have eaten like kings since we’ve been here. Our first night here we went with his family to a very nice restaurant where we ate our first grand meal. We started with a small cup of crab meat covered in saffron; then appetizers which Randy and I had Foie Gras (goose liver) with diced green apples in sauce; then main course which I had suckling pig with garlic mashed potatoes and Randy had the fillet of skate; which was all delicious. Of course, you can’t eat any meal without dessert and it usually involves chocolate. I’m afraid both Randy and I will have an addiction to chocolate after this trip because every country seems to love it and we have had some very delicious Belgium chocolate since we’ve been here.

            On Saturday we headed to Brussels (Bruxelles), Belgium, with François, Barry, and Iza. The rain managed to catch up with us that day so our sight seeing was limited due to unpleasant weather. But we did stop by the famous peeing boy fountain and we ate a delicious lunch before we set out to see some museums. The first museum we saw was the Museum of Chocolate. Here I learned that Christopher Columbus was supposedly the one to bring back cocoa beans from his fourth trip to the New World. The Aztec chocolate drink he brought back was originally too spicy for European tastes. It had to be refined with sugar cane and other ingredients before it found favor in the royal courts. It was also originally only taken as a drink, hot chocolate, and it was served in its very own designated china cup accompanied with a glass of cold water.  It wasn’t until the mid 1600’s that they started to bake with chocolate and then later introduced eating solid chocolate and then much later (1800’s) made milk chocolate. A lot of the very first chocolate companies started in Belgium, which is why chocolate is such a big deal in their country and it also explains why they are so good at making it. The history of chocolate is a bit more extensive than what I’ve mentioned and is rather interesting, so if you ever care to look it up I would suggest it.  

            We also went to the comic strip museum where I learned that TinTin and the Smurfs were originally Belgian cartoons. There were probably other cartoon comics there that some of you might recognize, but I’m not a big comics fan so those were the only two I could recall from my childhood. It was a fun museum to take pictures in.  After that museum we headed back to Lille and ate another fabulous dinner at one of their restaurants.

            On Sunday we headed to Bruges, where we had planned to take a walking tour through town. That was until we arrived in Bruges and were met by a hail storm. Randy and I felt it was our bad luck that brought the bad weather since hail was very unusual and we seemed to have bad weather following us. The streets, cars, and buildings all looked like they were covered in snow, but it was in fact just small balls of hail about the size of a pea. So we drove through town and turned around. On to plan B which was a large, traditional, winter lunch at François’ mother’s house. I have never eaten so much food in my life. We started our meal with smoked salmon on toast while we waited for lunch to finish cooking. When we sat down to eat we got a large serving of cooked vegetables (I’m talking large, fresh vegetables, cut into quarters; not anything you would get in the frozen food section), veal and pork, and of course bread. I was foolish enough to think that was all we would be eating so I ate every thing on my plate. I was surprised to have my plate cleared and then replaced with a new plate. We then had salad and a variety of cheeses to eat. And then we had dessert, which was a variety of fruit and chocolate pastries. Needless to say I was not hungry for the rest of the day. In fact, I think the meal carried over into the next day, but more on that later. After lunch we said good-bye to his mother and went for an afternoon walk through the country. It did rain a little off and on but it could not damper our cheerful spirits when looking at the beautiful scenery. 

Later that night we had the opportunity to see a couple of buildings François’ family business uses to cater parties in. One of the buildings is an old cathedral. There was a lot of controversy over using the church as a party hall, but if it wasn’t being used it would be torn down. Because church attendance is down in most countries, it is becoming more popular to find new uses for old buildings rather than tearing them down. And let me tell you, it is one very cool building to imagine an elegant banquet in. Unfortunately, they did have to cover the stained glass windows and any other religious objects to avoid upsetting patrons. But after walking through a dozen Catholic cathedrals like this one, it was a phenomenal experience to get to walk through every part of an empty cathedral.

On Monday we got to take a tour of their main catering kitchen. It was very large, with a lot going on from prep to storage to clean up, and an extensive warehouse storage area for decorations, alcohol, waiter uniforms, and linens. After the tour we went to eat lunch at their other restaurant, Le Forte, which is located in an old fort. This fort was designed with a garden/forest built on top of it, so you couldn’t tell it was a fort.  The fort today serves as more of a community center with a library, outdoor theater, and a trail through the rooftop garden, but also houses a couple of business and restaurants. The city owns the fort because the cost of upkeep is very expensive. The roots from the roof top garden have started to break through the brick, so when there is a crack in the brick they have to take out the plants, repair the crack, and then replant. Basically it’s not a quick fix. Anyway, because of the location, this restaurant attracts more of the business type crowd and it doesn’t go by your typical order of operations. It was set up so that you pick your main course from the menu of the day (about 6 options) and then eat your appetizers and desserts from the buffet. Now, don’t be mistaken, this is not a Home Town Buffet, these appetizers and desserts were worthy of a fine dining menu, and enough to eat alone for lunch without a main dish. Unfortunately, I was still full from the lunch the day before so after trying most of the appetizers I couldn’t finish my lamb shank or even try dessert. My stomach wanted to explode. Randy tried a couple of desserts and assured me that they were very delicious.      

Made of Chocolate!