I would say that sums up the weekend. I feel like a really accomplished tourist, braving glacial temperatures to see the sites in Lille, Ghent, and Bruges—our trifecta tour of Flanders. It was an extraordinary weekend but I am exhausted now! Nonetheless, I wish to recount the experience whilst it is fresh in my mind.
Before Flanders, there was a week. During this week, I did things of interest. Wednesday (1/28) was the Triptych sensory tour of the Marais as part of the Practicum arts class. Each student in the class received an address to check out and to subsequently make up “facts” about to give a “tour” to the Survey arts class. One of the most interesting assignments I received, it was a little difficult to strike a balance among believable, funny, and ridiculous. My address was 28, rue de Venise, a rather ugly modern building on a miniature street near the Pompidou Center. I made up a story that included 15th century painters, Italian merchants, Wiccan settlements, cabaret assassinations, magical trees, etc. I enjoyed walking through the Marais, which could be one of my favorite quarters in Paris. It has great character, shopping, food, architecture, and vibe. I must go back to explore more.
The real icing on the Wednesday cake was dinner that Mark planned for our class. We went to a restaurant called “Dans Le Noir,” (In the Black), that was exactly as its name sounds. We dined in total darkness. Our servers were blind people who led us to our seats and brought us our food. We had no idea what we were eating. To fill up our glasses we had to stick our finger inside to feel the level of the liquid. I realized how little I actually know how things taste independent from what they look like. For example, I thought the main course was beef, but it was actually duck. Needless to say, it was quite the experience! Bravo to Mark for organizing the whole thing.
On Thursday I got my haircut with Jen. She and my hairdresser ganged up on me the whole time and I was persuaded to cut my hair much shorter and get bangs. So my hair is much shorter and I have bangs. It was a fun little experience; French hairdressers are very different from American ones! I told my coiffeur to keep the length and do a little fringe in the front and he told me that it was absurd for me to pay him 50 euro to do nothing. I told him I wanted a shape to have more volume and he told me he couldn’t change the nature of my hair. He was very candid but charming and did a good job despite my reluctance. I’m not sure I like the cut but it looks kind of French (I think) and my hair is healthier. Voilà.
On Friday, it was off to Lille for the Bing Trip!
The rendezvous was at Gare du Nord directly after Friday morning class, which was joyfully held extra early to accommodate our train. Just after an hour on the TGV we were transported to the north of France in Flanders. Our hotel was beautiful and charming, the oldest hotel in Lille! Farah and I shared a lavender room, a huge step up from our nasty little hostel in Dublin. Lunch was at “Les 3 Brasseurs,” a traditional brasserie. Food was delicious and filling and I ate my share along with whatever the others left on their plates.
We had a walking tour all afternoon with the most horrible guide who talked incessantly about the most useless details. Luckily she didn’t stay with us when we went to Roubaix to see the Museum of Art and Industry, whose façade is an old cotton factory and whose building is a converted public pool and bath. The museum was incredible. The architecture of the pool is all art deco and a masterpiece in itself, and it has been tastefully redone as a museum. Dinner was free and a group of us found a restaurant with a 20 euro formule—much cheaper than Paris! I had frog’s legs (!), steak and mashed potatoes, a cheese plate, and chocolate mousse. Amazing.
The next day was spent in Ghent.
Lille is very close to the Belgian border, so we arrived in Gent quite early. The city is amazing. Flemish architecture will blow your mind. It is mostly gothic and neo-gothic, and it is freaking old! Our guide was thankfully a charming quadralingual man named Luke, who told us many interesting things about buildings and the history of the city in moderation. There are large places in the middle of the city where merchant would come to sell their good, with beautiful buildings all around and belfries and church towers all over the place. Jen, Michael, JW, Thierry and I lunched at a brasserie with questionable medieval murals on the wall à la Red Carpet Inn. Food was great, once it got to our table. Service was despicable and we had to rush back to meet the group on time.
Harp from a church in Ghent
The afternoon was spent touring the Chateau des Comtes (Counts), a medieval castle that has been well restored. The grand conclusion of the tour is that the Middle Ages were retarded. Everything was fashioned as preventative measure of defense, like mini windows to shoot arrows out of, holes in the floor to pour boiling oil onto intruders, etc. Dinner was at an incredibly chic and hip restaurant called Belga Queen with the coolest bathrooms ever. You go into the stall and the door is transparent. You lock the door, and it turns opaque! It’s magic.
The last day was spent in Bruges.
I’m convinced Disney created Bruges sometime in the 20th century to be the quaintest little town there ever was. The place is unreal. It peaked in the Middle Ages, when its population was twice that of its current size! It is called the “Venice of the North,” because there are dozens of charming canals off of the two rivers that traverse the town. The streets are narrow and all cobblestone, and nearly all the buildings are at least two centuries old. Highlights of the day include getting moules frites (mussels and fries) and Italian coffee (coffee and amaretto liqueur), buying amazing chocolates, eating Belgian waffles, and the horse-drawn carriage ride through the northern part of town to the windmill. We also went to an interesting medieval hospital turned museum to see primitive Flemish art.
but…
IT WAS INTOLERABLY COLD. I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO LOSE MY TOES TO FROSTBITE. LEATHER BOOTS DO NOT SUFFICE IN GLACIAL TEMPERATURES. HATS ARE NECESSARY. YOU WILL DIE IF YOU DON’T HAVE GLOVES. BRUGES IS BEAUTIFUL BUT SHE KNOWS IT AND IS ACCORDINGLY COLD.
We went to city #3 of the day (Lille) to catch the train to city #4 (Paris). Home sweet home. But I couldn’t retire yet for I was going to the Picasso exhibit at two in the morning! Hooray! “Picasso et les Maitres” is the most successful exhibit they’ve had at the Grand Palais for thirty years, and we were going on the last night. They opened it up to be 24 hours a day for the last weekend, and thus we bought tickets for the only available time: 2:00 am. So we took the last metro to the Grand Palais to see said amazing exhibit. Check out the P.A.R.I.S. blog for a more detailed account.
I spent today (Monday) sleeping and puttering around, running errands and such. Jen came over for dinner at my host family’s house to eat crepes, a February tradition. It was wonderful to have her here. Now it is late and I must go to bed! E-mail me what you all are up to. I like e-mails. Letters okay too.
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