Lille

"How can you govern a country with 

246 varieties of cheese?"

~Charles De Gaulle

For this quote alone, I want to know more about General Charles De Gaulle, the 18th president of the French Republic.  Any man with that sense of humor and that mustache has to be interesting.

Our home southeast of London is 2 hours via train from De Gaulle's birthplace in Lille, France.

We spent a cold weekend there with my sister in December.

You can find Christmas markets all over Europe in November and December.

Visiting one in a smaller city like Lille (Of course, there are still around a million people that live in and around the area.) promised to be an efficient way to experience both a Christmas market and a tiny bit of France together as a family.

We arrived in mid-morning and it was a beautiful day -- perfect for a ride on the giant ferris wheel.
It provided a magical view of the Renaissance era buildings prominent in the city center,

See the gold statue at the apex of the roof, above the flags?

Here it is from a much different angle, taken while high up in the ferris wheel:

The trio of women each doing their own thing -- it feels amusingly current.

Are they really that different from the girls from Clueless?

  Slightly.

Once we were back on the ground we moved on to other aspects of the Christmas markets.

There were food vendors, lots of mulled wine and cider, and a wide variety of both handmade and imported goods for sale.

I loved the pretzels with melted fromage et jambon: cheese and ham.

The metal toys were so cute and we were all kicking ourselves for not buying more.
I got a ferris wheel ornament for obvious reasons, a wind-up reindeer and a little wind-up Santa.
I thought they were so endearingly European and then they gave them to me in the boxes they came in straight from China, Ha!  Hey, it's a global economy. :)

Sally rode this carousel with the kids.  It is lined with cars for the passengers.
When it really gets to spinning fast, a covering moves over the riders and turns it into a very different ride experience.  We've never seen anything like it but the kids loved it!

Christmas decorations and lights were entertaining, especially for the youngest who could care less about medieval streets or gothic cathedrals.

The ferris wheel we rode, now at night.

Exploring old churches and cathedrals after dark is an interesting way to enhance your travel, especially in the winter when darkness arrives around 4:30. 

For what you lose by not enjoying the sun playing with the stained glass, you gain by way of having a more personal experience at a holy site.  

Darkness quiets the rush of day and allows you to slow down and become more appropriately reverent.

(Yes, I took a photo but there was no one else around and I didn't use my flash)

The science and reasoning behind the flying buttresses needs no explanation when you stumble onto music and singing being rehearsed like we did that night. The sounds flood the air and you can practically feel them on your face.

After a good night's rest, we woke to snow falling outside.

Well, the snow made everything more beautiful, but it was WET... and COLD. 

We attempted to find a restaurant for breakfast but most places we were interested in didn't open until 9:30 or later on Sunday.  

So we had McDonald's like good Americans, ha.

Very quickly it became a slushy walk in freezing rain.   

But we did continue to explore after a quick nap for G at the hotel.

The magnificent 300 year old old stock exchange building is now home to an antique market and a few brave venders were out in the cold with their goods.

We walked to the Natural History Museum in an attempt to find indoor entertainment.  I admittedly didn't overly plan the trip, as I thought we would spend more time outside exploring the markets and city streets.  The weather on Sunday didn't help with that, nor did the tired (and cranky) preschooler along for the ride.

It was an interesting weekend and I am glad we did it, but next time I will be better prepared;
I will have more concrete plans for what to do with 3 adults, 3 kids, and a baby doll in tow.
It turns out that dreamily exploring a European city isn't quite as feasible in reality as it is in your mind!
Your feet have to be firmly planted on Earth when you're holding little hands. :)

I will also know more French so we don't have to subsist on crepes and market fare so heavily.

Although when you're in a country that has "246 varieties of cheese," as De Gaulle mentioned, is that really such a bad thing?