We left Kingussie at 8:47 am two days ago on a Thursday. Train travel is so not stressful once you are on the train. Of course, you can stress before you get on if you forget what super safe place you put your tickets, but I wouldn’t do that. We sat back and watched the countryside go by and dozed a bit. I believe it was about 7 hours to London. That is where they tried to trick us into being stressed. The tickets for the beneath the Channel travel to France warned us you had to be at the check-in point for international travel an hour before departure. The tricky part was we were set to arrive one hour and seventeen minutes before departure. On arrival we needed to go across the street to a different station. It felt a little rushed but when I asked the conductor about, while in transit, he said that it was not actually enforced at all.
It was very good to not need to worry about that, but I did have a concern. For the second time this trip I forgot to get electrical adapters for our destination. Most of Europe has the same form of electrical wall outlets, but not the United Kingdom. The adapters I scrounged there will now be worthless. On the 90-minute journey from London to France I used my phone to organize any loose ends relative to our stay in Lille France. This was necessary because Sheila’s phone did not have much charge and mine was winding down with the recent use. I was thinking that my computer was also low on useful energy. I knew that when we arrived there would be things to be done electronically, that we needed to find adapters. We arrived in Lille France too late to shop and took a taxi to our apartment. It is a rough looking row of buildings on the outside, but fine on the inside. Though it was getting late we wanted to find a store. We went out the door and after a block saw a young lady approach. We asked if she understood English and if she knew of a nearby store. She knew a bit of English and was on the way to the neighborhood store. She offered us to tag along. The store had some good fresh produce, but the highlight was a quality 7 euro Cotes du Rhone red wine. The guide finished before us but waited for us to insure we got home. We made ourselves at home with a glass of wine and a light dinner. Amazing how many good people we run across. I went to bed knowing that I needed to get up and find adapters in the morning. The rub was that I was down to 20% on the phone and needed to use Google maps to find a shop with adapters.
A small viewing of our Lille apartment.
Friday morning and we are in Lille, got right down to the business of finding adapters. We were attempting to walk back to the train station that is adjacent to New Lille which is basically a huge shopping center that looks a little rough in places on the outside but is kind of bougie on the inside. We got to the shops just before the phone died but struggled to find a shop. Bear in mind I do not know much French, and even what I know, my accent renders not understandable. Three times we asked security personnel for assistance, and each was kind to us. The second personally guided us to a kiosk that unfortunately did not have what we needed. The third took us to what I would call a department store and eureka! The guard at the door spoke perfect English and pointed us to the section of the store with media devices. We stood lost for about 5 minutes until Sheila flagged down a young employee. After about 15 minutes of his poor English and my poor French we figured out what I did need and what I didn’t need. Both phones were dead so we got a coffee and a hot chocolate next door to the store so that we could sit, plug in our new adapter and get back to the modern world. While we waited, I went back and got a second adapter. A grim reminder of how dependent we have become on technology.
Back at our apartment and plugged into the world we decided to go to the Tourism Office in the Vielle Lille, old town. A young employee with passable English helped us with advice and maps. We wandered around a bit, tried to call a cab and failed, then went back to the tourism office. There I asked the young lady who had aided us earlier to call a cab. As we waited for a cab a group of 4 young men, likely around 14 years old asked to interview me for a school project. They were speaking English, and I agreed to interview. Problematically, they needed me to speak French. When I balked the interviewer tutored me on a four-word response to his one question filmed French interview. A few seconds later the four were laughing and I said, “You must be really good students.”
They all laughed, and one said you shouldn’t butter your bread on both sides, your hands will get messy.”
Sheila replied, “At least you’re having fun!” They all laughed and agreed.
Back at the apartment, we decided we wanted to cook. That meant back to the previous nights store. Somewhere I took a wrong turn and ended up at a different store. More fresh produce, lentils, sausages, a spicy olive oil and we had a feast. Oh, another Cotes du Rhone red wine, but for 5 euro this time. Not bad for our first full day in Lille.
You guys are having so much fun and adventures, you could write a book 📕
But the wine was good, and you are surviving,and thriving
Time to learn some French
Hi Charles, I’m thinking I might hunker down in Mexico this winter and write that book.