"Sunflora's new Lille Page" a Lille Travel Page by Sunflora

Lillie was splendid indeed! The atmosphere there was very festive with friendly and smiling faces everywhere. Must say the people in Lillie was nothing like I expected. And Lillie was indeed a shopping
heaven! With a huge EuraLille mall just 3 mins away from the Eurostar Station. When I went to Carrefour and saw the amazing choices of cheese they had! It felt like I had died and went to Cheese Heaven. And they were cheap too! Compared to what we were paying in London that is. Gosh life in London is so boring when compared to Lillie, LOL grass is always greener on the other side even if its covered by frost!

The architecture in the town center was very interesting. There is a Flemish influence in the architecture of Lillie. As it happens they had erected a huge Ferris wheel in the middle of the town center. Boy it was freezingly cold up there. Did I mention to you that French men are lots more interesting than English men ?;) I even had the opportunity to flirt with the French fellow in the other "cup" while Saiful was too busy complaining about the cold ;) Must say the smiling faces I see everywhere in Lillie is such a nice change compared to the stiff upper lip, non smiling, eyes-averting British. And the chocolates!! Yummy!! Went to this famous Lillie chocolate shop called "Au Chat Bleu" (the blue cat) and wow!! It was exactly the archetype of chocolate shops that you read in story books. With rows and rows of chocolates and truffles and the whole works!! The proprietor must have noticed our saucer like eyes when we entered the shop and our inability to prevent our saliva from dripping out of our mouths that he proceeded to explain what the chocolates were and the history of the shop in a French accented English. ( It was opened in 1912 by 2 elderly sisters and they owned Persian cats.) Good thing that didn't offer any as tasters as we would have eaten it all. We finally settled on one of the least expensive boxes which to came to 120.00 FRF. I guess they say a taste of heaven is not cheap. We are still rationing these chocolates!! Only one gem a night!

Did I mention shopping? Lingerie is enormously huge in France and I must say they have the most exquisite and most beautiful designs! And perfume!! There are several perfume superstores selling all possible brands of perfumes and cosmetics minus the nosy busy sales girls to dog you around and bug you when you test the perfumes. Here you can test as many perfumes as you want!! Also nice to note that in Lillie, the people mostly smell better!! No BO that make your nose cringe when someone passes by, but sweet or citrusy smiling people. The joke I heard on national TV here is that the only time British people buy after shave is during the Christmas period! I suppose it was the French who invented perfume. And then there was Printemps, the French departmental store that didn't do very well in
Singapore/Malaysia. Again I was spoilt for choices. With lots of encouragement from Saiful, I got myself a cute little red beret which gave me a lot of smiles. Of course they could possibly thinking "She got herself
a French cap?" *smirk*

And then there were the French bakery. Gosh the croissants in France definitely tastes better!!! And the bread, the palmier and the French-Belgian waffles! Ahh must describe this heavenly and of course fattening waffles to you! The batter is so light that these literally melt in your mouth when you take a bite. And for an extra charge, they will dip this delicious things in warm melted chocolate! YUMMY! I am salivating just merely at the memory of them!

We also visited the Palais des Beaux-Arts, an excellent museum with a superb collection of 15th to 20th century paintings. What strikes me as most interesting at the museum was the people who visited it. I saw a lovely couple with 2 kids, a girl about 5 years old and a boy perhaps 3-4. And boy they were so captivated by those paintings! Because they were speaking in French, I could not eavesdrop on their conversation. But there
were instances when the boy asked the mum something, and the mum explained things to him while pointing at the painting. And the boy looked totally engrossed! Must say I haven't seen very many families in Singapore, Malaysia or Hong Kong spending their time in a fine art museum and the kids looking very much captivated with what they saw! I must say I am very
impressed that in the age where Pokemon, Playstation and Game boy rules, its nice to know that some kids still enjoy visits to museums.

In fact, those were not the only kids I saw at the museum. There were several other families as well. All spending a good Sunday family day in a museum looking at beautiful pictures! Imagine that!

But of course all good things had to come to an end. I encountered another surprising incident in the Eurostar train. While making my way to our seats, I was blocked by a lady who was trying to get off the train. She was very fair, very pretty with dark hair and brown eyes. She spoke something to me in French, none of which I really understood but I got the gist that
she was asking me to let her pass. I turned round to Saiful and said in Malay, "Tepi sikit makcik ni nak lalu" (Move aside dear, this lady wants to pass.) To which she replied "Terimakasih" (Thank you) Boy I was
flabbergasted! But of course by then she was off the train and thus begun our ride back to Waterloo London.

Of course I can't wait to go back but often enough we are at a quandary if we want to go back to the places we like, or go to new places that perhaps we will fall in love with as well. Perhaps when you come over we can make a trip to Lillie again together. I did wish I could speak some French but since we chose to learn Italian for now French will have to wait. If only
I was a Cunninglinguist ;)