Lille Markets

Gare Lille Flandres

Bon Noel! Well, thousands of Brits flock to Lille every year for its Christmas market. The medieval style marche de noel which flourish in the Benelux region (that’s BElgium, NEderlands, and LUXembourg, by the way, a cultural group in which I somewhat include Northern France and parts of Germany, as they share many cultural similarities) are worth a visit if only for the joys of mulled wine and vin chaud (hot wine).

Marche de Noel entrance from Grand Place.

Marche de noel from above.

Supposedly, these markets are supposed to be filled with local produce, art and crafts. In truth, most of the markets I visited seemed to feature the same goods you can find in the stalls of daily suburban weekend markets (i.e. for those back home, the Central Markets). After the fiftieth stall featuring Made-In-Some-Poor-Asian-Country beanies and scarves, I gave up on finding anything interesting to send home as gifts, and went to visit the mulled wine stand again. I also took the time to ride the Ferris Wheel, sitting in a carriage with two excitable German tourists who took great amusement at my pulling out The Pink Tripod* to take photos of the city.

Lille from above.

Lille from above.

Grand Place from above.

Ferris Wheel in Grand Place.

What I do adore about Christmas in Europe is the lights. Though now threatened by environmentalism, lights are strung in every main street as the days start to get short. They’re lovely, and distract from the foggy, dark, weather.

Building decorations in Grand Place.

Street decorations over Rue de Bethune (the Rundle Mall of Lille).

Australia!

I had been holding out for Australia, it’s now here. I went to see it in Brussels, a bizarre experience: while I was smiling in homesick glee, the Dutch and French patrons in the audience were completely confused. No wonder: I can now follow French subtitles (and Dutch is so similar to English, you can usually figure out what it says) and the subtitles were often completely wrong. Australian English just doesn’t translate, it appears. Nicole Kindling was appropriately wooden and Hugh Jackman appropriately yobbo, but the kid is actually really cute, and it is all so wonderfully silly in the way that Baz Luhrmann can only do, so I liked it.

Bruges (it’s in Belgium)

B for Bruges

So, after missing my train to Strasbourg (where I was to see one of the more famous Christmas markets in Europe), I went to another ‘famous’ Christmas market, in Bruges. I also came back a few days later, with Caro and family.

Marche de Noel, in the Grand Place in Bruges.

The markets there were better than Lille, but not because the market stalls held anything particularly interesting (more Made-In-Nepal Beanies). It was all about the chocolademelk (hot chocolate, duh) with Bacardi or Amaretto, which was  h e a v e n. I keep telling myself that in such cold weather, alcohol is not a luxury, but a necessity.

Christmas markets in Bruges.

Grand place, Bruges.

Market stalls. Behind them is an ice-skating rink.

Bruges market fare: Bratwurst! Not your usual sausage in bread with a bit of onion and dead horse**. This was the bomb.

I liked Bruges the first time I visited with Caro back in 05, but this time around, I was somewhat more bored. It is a photographer’s city, but the weather was appropriately miserable and not suited to taking photos. So I spent much of my time there drinking hot chocolate at the market, and cheap red back at my hostel. I also went to see a movie (Brideshead Revisited), and ate a lot of frites, which I think explains those coupla kilos I miraculously gained while I was away.

Christmas cheer in a shop window.

Christmas decorations on traditional shops.

Sinterklaas / Saint Nicolas figurines in the German Christmas shop.

View across the red rooves of Bruges.

Town hall with Christmas tree.

Bruges is called the Venice of Belgium (it seems that any city with canals these days is referred to as the Venice of somewhere). The canals really are gorgeous:

Canals in foggy weather.

Canals lit up at night.

Churches lit up at night.

Bruges main ‘attraction’ is the Church of the Holy Blood. I did arrive while the ‘holy blood’ itself was being venerated (after a small donation, of course) by tourists. It seemed a little odd, the silent queue up to the platform where the vial of blood rests on an elegant cushion, watched over by a stern faced priest. I was more interested in the interiors which are absolutely stunning. Unfortunately they don’t allow photos (!) so I was promptly told off.

Interior of the Church of the Holy Blood.

On a minus, I had a flashback to the days when smoking wasn’t banned in bars – in Belgium, it’s still allowed. Drinking my wine with my eyes stinging and nose running in the hostel bar was definitely the lowest point of the trip. I even considered escaping to the terrace (-2 degree weather, by the way) to escape, which I thought was bizarrely ironic and unjust.

At Caro’s

I spent Christmas at Caro’s, with her family. Her parents, her parents and brother in-law also attended, and devilishly gave me a present each (I, of course, hadn’t thought of that). It was great to spend Christmas with friends, especially as I had such a miserable time of Christmas in Japan.We had turkey, bouche (log shaped christmas cake), and tortoise:

Tortue!

The year before they ate crocodile.

Last stop before Iceland – Brussels.

I stayed the last night in Brussels so I could catch an early train to Paris (for my flight to Iceland), and to go see Australia. Brussels was suprisingly quiet – I guess, being a major business city, it’s abandoned at Christmas. But what was fantastic was the light show in the Dexia tower:

The Dexia Tower (right) is fitted with dozens of LED lights as part of an ongoing light installation.

It was fascinating. Though you can’t see it, the lights variegated through purple, orange and blue. It wasn’t until I was nearer did I see the display – the lights were representing a video of a street. I think. Anyway, when I got back I did some research about it – it’s an ongoing installation that has taken many other forms over the years. Put ‘Dexia’ into You Tube and you’ll see plenty more.

So, anyway, next is the Iceland trip, if I ever get around to putting the photos together. Adios.

__________

* The Pink Tripod causes great excitement amongst tourists whenever I pull it out. Seriously. Everyone stops to stare and grin. It’s basically three television aerials built into a casing – I bought it at Bic in Japan, never seen one like it anywhere else. I think the excitement is because it’s pink. And it matches my camera, which is also pink.

** So my foreign readers are not alarmed: dead horse is rhyming slang for tomato sauce.