Winter Break, Part 3: Reuniting in Lille

On Thursday night, we met up with Carson and his folks in Lille before going to dinner at an estaminet (traditional northern French restaurant that’s basically the equivalent of a mom and pop diner in the States but...French-ier) that specialized in duck. It was located on what is said to be the best estaminet street in Lille and was adorable in every way. As always, I was blown away by how many parts of a duck the French figured out you can eat. (But really did they figure this out through trial and error/who originally thought foie gras would be a cool plan?)

The next day I took mom on a brief walking tour before meeting up with Carson and his parents at the coolest galette restaurant ever. 

Classy underground crepe dungeon

We spent the rest of Friday walking around and shopping. I had been avoiding any sort of mall since I arrived (because poor) and, to the moms’ shared dismay, had no idea where people went to buy reasonably priced clothes. Luckily, we ended up finding a store called Zara, which like Forever 21 price-wise but H&M clothes quality-wise. (Also—now that I think about it—maybe Zara is something everyone already knew about other than me?) In any case, it was AWESOME and Carson and I both upgraded our wardrobes from five shirts to eight whole shirts.

After shopping, we situated ourselves in a nice little café on the Grand Place.

Brilliantly counteracting bad weather in a heated box with beer and
vin chaud

Eventually, we went back to the apartment for some pre-dinner bread, cheese, and wine and then headed to the same restaurant we took Ween and Daddy Jim on their last night in Lille. It was as awesome as the first time.

Unfortunately, Carson’s parents had to take off that night to catch an early flight out of Brussels. We were super sad to see them go but glad that we got to spend an awesome day/two awesome nights in their company. Touring around with Carson’s parents is super fun—Cathy’s drive to actually move and do things combined with Joel’s love of hanging out in cafés and drinking beer makes them probably the most perfect visitors ever.

On Mom’s final day in Lille, it was—to the great surprise of all—beautiful. I was very happy she got to see the city while not hiding under an umbrella. After showing her some of our favorite spots and the park, we had an awesome lunch of oysters, foie gras, prosecco, etc. on a lovely outdoor terrace.

Lunch-ing

We sort of just chilled the rest of the afternoon. In this time, I noticed that Bloempot—the most famous restaurant in Lille that’s owned by some guy who was on Top Chef and located directly next to our apartment—had posted that they had 10 tables open for whoever arrived first that night. I was SO excited; I thought that they were a reservations-only place and they are entirely booked up forever. Like seriously, the calendar on the website just ends and there are no free nights.

Anyway, this place is awesome because the whole menu is fixed and secret and to get inside the restaurant you have to go through a giant blue gate that takes you down a passageway. It’s impossible to see from the street—in other words—and we were excited to unveil the mystery. It of course turned out to be amazing. I’m not totally sure how to describe the décor, but it was somewhere between rustic, homey cabin and a fancy gas station all at once.

So, on to the food...They pair wines with each plate and it’s sort of a tapas-like thing. Of the three menu options—6 plates, 7 plates, or 8—I opted for the 7 at first while Carson and Mom chose the more reasonable 6. But then, after the first plate, I asked the waiter to upgrade me to an 8 because I felt an uncontrollable need to try everything produced by this man’s hands. We all agreed it was one of the best meals of our lives and I am determined to try to go back with everyone else who comes to visit. Hopefully the first come first serve thing is a common occurrence.

Anyway, we’re just getting back into the swing of things and already excited for our April break/Spring weather to arrive. Hope everyone had a great first week of March!