Saturday, 29 July, 2017 – weather: OK

Again the weather is supposed to be very rainy but other than the occasional, it is actually OK and sometimes quite warm. We go out relatively early with a few goals in mind (1) find breakfast; (2) get more clarification about what our rail tickets to Brussels can do.

We select this bagel place for goal (1)
The Menu
Julie ordering
Julie’s Double serve smoked salmon bagel with Coffee and Fresh Orange Juice
My chicken bagel with large orange juice

We then go to the train station that is close by to find out what we can do with our pre-bought tickets. There is a wait at information for a bit of a queue but it is OK. The Info guy speaks OK English and understands our query when we show him the tickets. He prints out a range of times for trains we can take, no reservation required.

I then create another goal for this trip (3) investigation of this place for tonight that Julie has pointed out earlier is famous for its slow smoking of meats. This is a bit unfair of me because she was not prepared. It is a long winding walk, and I am getting grumpy again, when we finally find the place. I make reservations for tonight which turned out to be a good idea as the place was quite popular. We did walk through new areas of Lille on our way there and back that in some ways were more interesting than what we had seen already.

This proves that French people are not Frogs but Bovines instead
A special selfie – not taken advantage of
Interesting name for a bar

After we return to the apartment – shock, horror Julie goes prancing to find a local market. Some photos.

The Huge Market – two stalls
Interesting but Yuk to me
Ditto

Julie arrives back at around 5:30, which means with our 6:00 booking we might be pressed for time. The website says a 6 minute walk, my view is that it was over 16 on the way back this morning. Any way, we get there on time. The owner, who had taken my booking, is not there and the guy in charge can’t find our booking which I eventually do. We are escorted to a back room which works out OK.

Our destination – quite crowded outside given that it is drizzling
Julie perusing the menu in the side room
Meats to smoke
Wines to drink
Our wine
We ordered smoked lamb ribs as a starter. Julie loved the salad but found the ribs too tough. I ended up with most of them – good smoky flavour
Julie’s salmon timbale with smoked salmon and salad

I had tried to use my Google translate first to explain to a waiter that there was broken glass on the table near us – failed. Then to interpret the meaning of the duck dish I had intended to order – fail. I ordered it any way and the waiter and maybe the Google translate said that it was:

Duck slices – smoked and generous serve
Irish Coffee, layered, of course

The people next to us were interesting – a Pom, his American wife, their daughter and her Belgian husband. Julie had a long chat. Then it was back home in the drizzle. We are on the road again tomorrow.

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