Lille and around

The next day was another packed one! First tour of the day was a walking one of the old town. Lille is the capital of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region in northern France, near the border with Belgium - you can actually take the metro into Belgium it is so close!

We woke up to beautiful sunshine, had breakfast, were ready to go and then this:

There was discussion about whether or not this tour was going to turn into a pub tour or not but then just as we started moving, the sky cleared and we were safe. . . well until the last stop. 

Tourist office

Memorial

The tour takes you through the main square which is heavily influenced by the Flemish and thus, similar to towns you might find in Belgium.  It includes: the Palais Rihour, the Main Square, the old stock exchange, the Opera House, the Chamber of Commerce, the Notre-Dame de la Treille cathedral.

Along the way you pass the buildings that house an outdoor market, the opera and more! I also found out that the outside of the Lille train station is the old Gare de Nord façade from Paris.

The tour ends near the Hospice Comtesse, founded in 1237 by Jeanne de Flandre. Inside you can find pieces from this time period and a brief history of the property. The last stop though is the church across the street which was something I had never seen before - a real mix between new and old!

The church . . .

Following this tour we had to haul ass back to the main square because we had another tour to take - yep, hence my comment at the beginning, I think I was a bit delirious! 

The tour first takes you to Fromelles and the Museum of the Battle of Fromelles which focuses on the deadly battle which took place on 19th and 20th July 1916 and mostly British, Australian and German references. The museum was well done but we could have used a bit more time.

Then it was off to war memorials and Commonwealth cemeteries, especially the Australian Memorial Park and the VC Corner Cemetery.

 

Le Trou Aid Post Cemetary

 

Then we headed on the road to Ypres stopping along the way at more memorial sites. Our first stop was the Hyde Park Corner Cemetery in Belgium.

 

I think my favourite was the site of the 1914 Christmas truce memorial in Ploegsteert, Belgium. Firstly it had to do with soccer which fit in well with the theme of our trip, but mostly because you could really see the division between the battle lines, no-mans land and how close the two sides actually were to one another. For those that don't know what the Christmas truce is, it was a series of unofficial ceasefires that took place on Christmas in 1914 along the western front of World War I.

Next stop was Saint Nicolas of Messines church, rebuilt in 1928. Its 11th century Norman church hosted a German field hospital during the war.

The tour finished in Ypres, a city that was rebuilt after the war. The main site we saw was the Menin Gate which is a huge memorial to the war and then Anglican church. It was a shame we didn't have time to visit the town centre more because we could have sampled some Belgian beer and see what else the city had to offer.  

 

Then we were back in Lille to catch a train back to Paris! Wow, this was a long post - sorry about that!

Euro Cup continues - First Stop Lille

Now remember how crazy my life was leading up to this point? Well, I was also planning this trip so I may have gone a bit crazy with what we could pack into a day!

We left bright and early Friday, July 1st (Canada Day for you non-Canadian readers) and headed to Lille. It was July but the weather was cool and not great for being outside. I wore a sweatshirt the entire weekend! We arrived, dropped off our stuff and then headed for a beer - I mean lunch. We had a tour departing in a couple of hours!

Proudly Canadian!

The crazy thing is on our way to catch the tour, people were already gearing up for the evening match!

Most of the tours available from Lille have to do with first World War. We picked because it included Vimy Ridge but first up was the Lens 1914-18 Great History War Centre.  The displays in the Centre cover battles that took place in the Nord-Pas-de Calais region of France. The Centre is in an area that occupied a strategic position between Ypres (Belgium) and the Somme in France. The village itself was destroyed during the 1915 Battles of Artois. Of course, it has since been rebuilt. The exhibition is pretty well done.

Next stop - Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, which is home to the largest First World War cemetery in France and the great Ring of Remembrance, an architectural oval that was inaugurated in 2014 and bears the names of 580,000 dead soldiers of all nationalities. The ground was strategically important during the First World War and was bitterly contested in a series of long and bloody engagements between the opposing French and German armies during the three battles of Artois.

The Cemetary

Ring of Remembrance

The white is all the names

Panel after panel around the ring. . .

You can see all the way to Vimy

The last stop of the tour was Vimy Ridge. It was kind of poetic to be there on Canada Day as 1) it is in honour of the Canadians who fought this battle and the fact that we won it! and 2) it is actually on Canadian land. So I was home for July 1st :) 

It's a pretty impressive memorial that given it's location and size is very moving.

sporting my Team Canada soccer jersey 

You can't walk here because it is still filled with landmines but you can still see where there were explosions

They only allow sheep to maintain the grass

And because we hadn't done enough this day, we headed back to Lille where the party had already started . . 

More layers and rain gear were required because it was pouring on our way to the first match of the trip - Belgium vs Wales. Our first of two quarter final games. We had crazy close seats, bit of a bizarre angle but at least no one sat in front of us! This game was awesome because Wales, who was expected to do nothing, beat Belgium!

Getting started

front row baby!

Ceremony starts

Game on!

Finally it was time for sleep!