Letter from Lille 12 May

Saturday was our last full day in Lille and in fact our last real day of vacation in France. Tomorrow we begin the process of returning to the United States.

But today was gorgeous, warm and steady sun and we planned to make the most of it. Even though my chest cold refused to go away I had no intention of letting some here-today, gone-tomorrow virus keep me from having fun, so when Christina and Glen suggested we all head up to Belgium to visit a most unusual park I said YEAH! (pictures below)

The plan was for us to drive separately since there wasn’t enough room in any one car for the six of us. After a leisurely breakfast Susan and I head headed off to get our car out of the garage, turned on the GPS and headed out of the city. An hour or so later, after driving around much of southern Belgium, we found the parking lot for the park Pairi Daiza (and yes, it was originally called Paradise).

Our credit cards wouldn’t work in the automatic ticket kiosks so we had to go to one of the ticket booths. It all worked fine and with a little help from our phones we met up with the MacDs at the entrance.

Part zoo, part botanical garden and theme park without the rides, for the next several hours we strolled through Asia, Africa and India, several braved the crypt beneath the 13th century ruined abbey tower to have bats fly around their heads and a few of us — Liam and I abstained — chose to have their feet nibbled on by fish whose sole goal in life was to clean dead skin away. We strolled through the original 18th century mansion that now incorporates the aquarium, walked casually by fruit bats just hanging around, ate noodles at a wonderful Asian pavilion and watched red pandas having their lunch, not to mention the giant pandas and gorillas all napping during the midday heat, took a train ride around the entire park to savor the feel of Africa and just enjoyed being out in the sun along with much of the population of northern France.

And we still didn’t see everything.

That evening, after we all returned to Lille, Christina fixed a wonderful meal for us before we finished packing up in preparation for our departure the next day.

We’ll miss Lille, but more importantly we’ll miss the MacDonalds’ hospitality and generosity and especially those two kids: Liam’s ordering a bucket of mussels for dinner and Kiera ordering for us in French were two of the many high points of an all-too-short visit.

the only remaining part of the original 13th century abbey now houses bats

storks abounded everywhere

next to where we ate lunch

that house in the background is the aquarium

fruit bats

red pandas

inside the aquarium

To Flanders Fields 19 September

This past Monday we left Lille for Flanders Fields in Belgium. Our friends Richard and Pauline drove over from England and picked us up at the MacD's apartment. They arrived a few minutes before 2pm just as I was going downstairs to keep watch for their red Ford Focus.

After a round of hugs and helloes (we introduced them to Christina) followed immediately by a round of hugs and goodbyes, the four of us were packed into the car and soon heading north into Belgium. Our first stop was to drop our bags at the Hotel Callecanes, just across the border in Watou, Belgium.

After checking in and taking a short break we returned to the car and made our way to Ieper (in French Ypres) where we arrived just in time to catch the "Last Post" at the Menin Gate inside the centre ville. Originally the fortified eastern entrance to the city the gate was rebuilt in 1927 as a Memorial to the more than 54,000 Commonwealth dead who were killed during the various battles of Ypres and whose graves are unknown.  The road that passes beneath was the route Allied soldiers took to the front.

After the parade of the pipers from the city square to the arch and the laying of wreaths by several pairs of individuals buglers played the Last Post.(see the video a the end of the post) There were, I should guess, 150-200 people in attendance of this short but moving event, which is performed every evening at 8pm (2000).

After the ceremony we found a place on the town square (Leshalles) for a fashionably late dinner before making our way back to the hotel.

even the young children were caught up in this

Ieper, Tyne Cot and Langemark Cemeteries 20 September

After a leisurely breakfast at the hotel the four of us drove (well actually Richard drove with three tagging along) back into Ieper. Our objective was to pay a visit to the In Flanders Fields Museum. Located in the very grand Cloth Hall -- destroyed along the entire town during the war and rebuilt after -- this museum was worth the trip to France.

Upon entry to the museum each visitor receives a poppy bracelet with a microchip inside, which activates the chosen language for the visitor. The history of the war, particularly in Ypres are told with incredible poignancy through personal stories across several nationalities. The use of interactive media was, we all thought, very well done and quite engaging.

As one might expect, the displays include medical equipment, gas masks, uniforms, and a mule and munitions wagon exhibit. Yet the journey through the museum and thus through history of the war, also focused on the consequences of war.

It was generally agreed that the layout of the museum was superb and very well thought out -- you moved ever forward to the finish but without feeling steered in any specific direction; it just seem to happen. Even though there were many visitors in the museum when we were there -- including a very large group of teenagers -- one never felt crowded. Oh, and speaking of children, I must say that the respect, interest and engagement on the faces of those kids was impressive.

Before exiting there was a large room, a secondary exhibition as it were, covering writing about the great war. One could sit and read samples from works in several languages. This was truly the capstone to the museum.

After leaving the museum we went in search of lunch -- just around the corner as it turned out. Near the Ieper monument to it's local dead we sat outside at the Allegria Cafe where we were waited on by the most unhappy 12-year-old boy. The food matched his temperament, I'm afraid: not very good.

After lunch we paid a second visit to the Menin Gate Memorial to see it in daylight this time.

From Ieper we made our way to the Commonwealth Memorial and cemetery of Tyne Cot. Like so many Commonwealth cemeteries (there are som 410 of them along the Somme) this one was opened on the battlefield itself (remains of a bunker lie at the very center of the cemetery beneath the flagpole). It is also one of four Commonwealth memorials to the missing in Belgium and is oday the largest Commonwealth cemetery in the world: 11,961 known burials and another 8,373 graves are listed as unknowns; another 35,000 names of soldiers whose graves are unknown are inscribed on the sweeping wall of the memorial.

From Tyne Cot we then drove to the German cemetery at Langemarck. The contrast to Tyne Cot was striking. Where the first was full of light and openness, the German space was dark and somber, almost claustrophobic. The cemetery contains more than 44,000 graves, of which 24,917 men are buried in en masse in the Comrades' Grave.  The village of Langemark also holds the dubious distinction of being the scene for the first gas attack by the Germans in April of 1915.

That evening we ate dinner at Markt 38 in Poperinge, Belgium.

Ypres monument to its dead

poppies growing in a cornfield across from the entrance to Tyne Cot

entrance to Langemarck

Day trip to Bruges in Belgium 17 September

On Saturday last the six of us -- four MacDonalds, Susie and I -- walked the ten minutes or so to Lille Flandres train station. At a little after 9am we were pulling away from the platform and heading north to Bruges in Belgium. Even with a connection at Courtrai it was a quick trip, less than two hours. From the main station in Bruges we walked fifteen minutes into the heart of the old city.

Bruges is home to wonderfully old architecture, spectacular sculpture, quaint canals and throngs of tourists. No matter. We were there, like everyone else, to enjoy the history and ambience of a place that has spent much of its recorded history surrounded by water.

And speaking of water, our first order of business a cruise on the city's canals. For us that meant looking for Boten Stael cruises, located in the shadow of the Church of Our Lady.

Our cruise lasted about half an hour and once back on dry land we went off in search of our luncheon spot: Cambrinus, just off the main market square. Glen and Christina had been once before and they thought the food good. They were not wrong. We started off with a flight of four beers -- Cambrinus is known for their selection of more than 400 different Belgian beers, one of which was a cactus beer! And for food it was beef carbonades (Flemish beef stew) all round: beer-braised beef, cooked slow. . . with a large bowl of frites to pass.

After lunch we strolled the town, visited the Church of Our Lady where we got to see -- from a painfully long distance -- Michelangelo's Madonna and Child, although we did get close up to the brass (?) effigies of Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy and his daughter Mary. From the church we made our way across the old town and strolled the grounds of a former nunnery and now the last remaining beguinage in Belgium (a community for lay church women). We stopped at Tonka Cafe for coffee and ended our day by popping into a Leonidas chocolate shop to pick up a selection to take home.

As the shadows began to lengthen we headed back to the train station (why do return trips always take less time that the the original outbound one?).

Before long we were back in Lille and the MacD apartment. That evening we had Indian food delivered and before bed enjoyed the fireworks display from their top floor. (Every third weekend of September is Heritage Days when France celebrates itself by opening the doors of otherwise closed government offices and buildings to the public, many museums are free and much, much more.) The fireworks cast a spectacular light on a carnival still underway near the Citadel, a Vauban-designed fort still in use by the French army.

What a day, what a day indeed!

At the Lille Flandres train station, waiting to leave

Glen Liam and Christina

occasionally one finds sculpture along the canal

Charles the Bold, and his daughter. . .

Mary, duchess of Burgundy

on an outside wall of the church of Our Lady

two monks giving each other the "kiss of peace," located in the courtyard of the old site of Saint-John's Hospital

béguinage, housing for lay women living in a religious community

peeking out of a window above a row of restaurants leading up to the entrance to the béguinage

Leda and the swan (Zeus), along with Prometheus chained to a cart pulled by Pegasus by Jef Claerhout

on our way back to the train my eye caught these passion flowers (?) growing up a wall just outside the city center