Express By Holiday Inn Arras

... br>Yesterday on my way to work, I was sat next to a couple of respectable looking people until they got off and were replaced by an old wrinkly smelly man on one side and an old smelly woman on the other side. The woman smelt like very very very old cheese, and had a carrier bag that she kept looking into and feeling inside it for something but she never once brought out whatever it was so I never got to find out... perhaps it was the very very very old cheese.<br><br>Other ...

... that I have been dying to do in Lille is to climb to the top of the Belfry in the Hotel de Ville and see the view of the city. I have made two attempts to do this now, both at times when it was closed! <br><br>I took my parents to a market on the first day they were here, which was a lovely little French Sunday market in the old part of town, it was much nicer than the big "famous" market in Wazemmes, which is slightly out of the centre. I went ...

... with animals, we really enjoyed the acrobatics and the incredible diversity of the circus. Acts came from all over the world, including England and Kenya and was well worth the 7&#8364;!<br><br>My Sundays are now typically spent preparing for school on Monday, after a nice lie-in and a visit to the Sunday morning market, of course!<br><br>This week at school I began teaching. However, not many of the teachers remembered this. I arrived for my ...

... and go to school. There was a nice little Canal down the middle of the town and very cute shops and restaurants for all. We then piled back on the bus one more time and headed for the WWI memorial Museum in.... I dont remember. It was equally as awesome and housed some great war paraphernalia. <br><br>All in all, this was a great trip. Very exhausting, we were always on the go, but very helpful to understanding every aspect of architecture.Stay tuned for Amsterdam!!!<br>

... still yet to fully explore! And we spent the rest of the day back in Ikea and exploring our new surroundings.<br>That evening we explored a little bit of Lille's nightlife and enjoyed a few cocktails just me and Erin and had a night-time walk through Vieux Lille (which was fun until it started raining)!<br>We spent our first Sunday on a culture trip in the "Muséé des Beaux Arts" which is free on the first Sunday of every month and was a fantastic experience, after which we got a crepe ...

... down 8 meters into communication tunnels and ended up telling us a lot of the history on this area for WW1. We finished off by going to the monument! This over looks the ridge that was so important to the battle and is huge. We looked around for a little and then started chatting with a nice couple from the UK. They ended up leading us home were we hung out and grabbed a few drinks before dinner. We left the next morning for the city of Bruges.

... MG's. The Allies walked forward and were cut down mercilessly. They lost 20,000 in one day - a Division worth. No mans land was left with dead and dying men - the Germans bombed this area - to finish off what they had started. This is an eerie place to walk. We visited the 'Caribou' perched high on a hill - the symbol of the Newfoundlanders action in this area (Newfoundland is now apart of Canada). I gave the ...

... on the beach there to sanctify it. Cy will be impressed. It is a very sad &amp; moving thing to visit all the war grave sites. Have taken over 300 pix so far! The question of the day: Why do the stop signs here in France say 'STOP' and not 'Arret'?????????????????? Bob

... seems very popular, all the different parts including whole pig's head, conical smoked cheeses, and a fantastic variety of fish and shellfish. I am delighted to see Percebes (stalked barnacle) - I once saw a TV program many years ago about men in some part of Spain who collected this funny looking shellfish off the rocks with waves breaking over them, and it intrigued me - as soon as I see the Percebes I know it's them. They are made up of a flexible trunk (about 1 ...

... and croissant at a cute little café while we watched the market start taking shape. The different colored awnings started to emerge, and from nowhere, myriads of people started to pour out into the streets with their grocery carts for their Saturday morning shopping. We didn't want to miss out on anything so we finished our breaky and moved on. Markets are usually laid out along one single street or on a ...