After Versailles I had a lovely invitation to spend a Saturday in Lille with Julia, her brother Jack and their aunty, Jennie. The day started off with a little bit of a "boo-boo" as we didn't realise the musée de la piscine was closed in the morning, so the 30 minute metro ride and a quick nose around Roubaix is as far as we got! This was really fun though as it gave me the opportunity to meet Jennie and Jack properly and chat Jennie's head off...oops. So the next stop on our day in Lille was The WAF!The Waf is the dog café, the first in Europe, found in Vieux Lille. The concept is fantastic, you pay for the hours you stay and you have as much free drinks - teas, coffees, squash etc as you want! For 2 hours we payed 7.50! Not bad at all! The café has loads of different dogs that sleep, play and run round for everyone to enjoy. As a new comer, the famous "Ophélie" gave us the tour, telling us all the dog's names and personalities. In all honesty, I'm not a dog person, sorry I like cats, but even I LOVED this place. It's definitely a must in France
We then had a fantastic lunch in Pain Quotidien a huge merci buckets to Jennie for that, it was incredible!!! We had a lovely time exploring Lille, walking off the food, and buying of course....MORE FOOD!
Our next trip was to my favourite café/tea room of all time, Chez Méert! I decided to have a Strong English Breakfast Tea! Jack and I both had the Garden of Eden cake too...YUM.
It was an amazing day to meet such a lovely family, I felt really lucky! Thank you so much Julia, Jack and Jennie! Hopefully see you all soon for a 4 J's reunion!
The week after was also a very busy one. My tutee had offered Wednesday to take me to see La Belle et La Bête! Beauty and the Beast! I got to see a real French Disney story in FRENCH. I was really impressed with all of the French songs and voices as well as the special effects! After that, we went "karting", or go-karting as we call it. This was TERRIFYING. Never in my life am I doing it again, but there's not many people that have pretended to be 14 years old and got called a snail for how slow they were going!
The picture above is a TV tray my tutees mom had given me when she asked if I wanted crêpes for desert..I had my own tray full of crepes, sugar and jam whilst watching TV!!!!! As you can see another family that are too too kind for words!
That weekend I spent at Caroline's!
We had a fantastic day helping her daughter Eloïse prepare for a trip to Italy, which meant SHOPPING! I really enjoyed helping to pick some things out for her! We then had the pleasure of going to the Buffalo Restaurant which was delicious, I was so grateful as my meal was immense!The evening was PIZZA, my absolute favourite food, so it was a great weekend!!! I spent a wonderful time with the kids as well as the lovely chats I have with Caroline and her husband, a family that are just as close to me as my own!
That Sunday was Vanessa's 21st birthday, a huge happy birthday to her again. We went to the Bureau restaurant in Douai together, with cocktails and such amazing food. I had a fantastic night thank you so much Vanessa and I hope you're doing well!
Finally we are up-to-date for this weekend. This weekend was the famous "Escape Rooms" and last weekend for all the assistants in Lille, as after this weekend no-one is free on the same days! This week I became very stuffed up with the flu and cold, even missing work! Anyone who knows me well enough knows that a day off for me must mean I'm either dead or not moving out of bed from being so ill...the second was very accurate. It hasn't been fun. Being ill outside of your own home, your own family sucks. I'm really lucky I had Isabelle feeding me all sorts of medicines and natural remedies, as well as cooking some terrific food, I'll forever be really grateful for this week! I've also had the pleasure of phone calls from Matt and my Mom every day checking on how I am! Thank you so much!!! So Friday it was back to work and then to Lille....
A huge shout-out to Luke for this amazing idea. The Prison Break themed escape room was incredible. I think we were all amazed at how cool the game was and we are all dying to do another together...maybe it could be a group tradition now guys?!
We were locked in 3 cells in pairs and had 1 hour to get out of there, the main room and the nurses room we ended up in! It was known as the hardest of escape rooms and we failed...with 30 seconds for the final bit to go! DAMN.
A huge joke surrounding this was the fact we spent too long holding some important keys, instead of throwing them. Poor Luke has had this ripped out of him ever since, so I'll stop there. But Luke, really, throw the god damn key.
So this was my last weekend with my assistant family, (sorry I didn't see you Ellie & Christina but hope Venice was super nice!) as I'll be spending Easter with Caroline's family and then I'm off travelling. I think I'm only sleeping in my own bed 4 times after next week?!?!?! CRAZY.
A huge thank you to Lauren and Becca, who hosted the greatest soirée ever, and for putting up with me all weekend. It was a great way to spend my final time with you guys! Our soirée was not your typical house party, however, oh no, we had a team quiz on our year abroad, year abroad awards and a music round thanks to Nia and Luke! I was chuffed to win the best candid taker and the best blog. SO THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!
The night ended very early this morning, so I am shattered now! But it truly was a fantastic send-off! With French baguettes, cheeses, crisps, strawberries and chocolate! So today/last night was amazing but also really sad. I've now had to say goodbye to some of the most amazing people I've ever met, but thankfully we all live in the UK, so maybe one day we can have a huge reunion.
I want to take this moment on my blog to say a huge thank you to this group of people. In the 8 months I've been living in France, these people have been my 'UK family'. Stuck together by Nia Jones herself, every trip organised, every day out, every laugh in Lille has been thanks to these people. Moving away on a year abroad is a huge thing and having different support systems has made me feel finally at home. Thanks to these girls and Luke, you've restored my faith in people after a tough previous two years. You've shown me that although we're different, we get on like a house on fire and for that, I'll be forever grateful. So here's to you 'HaLille Galdem', who held everyone together when times were tough, who was always there if you wanted plans and never said NO. It's not every day you'll meet such a special group of people and I fully believe we are going to be friends for a long long time.
So now, I have one week of school before the holidays, two weeks break, 1 week at work and then I'm home (for a little bit, hehe), it's going to fly!!!!
What is life going to be like after France? Who knows, but I'm ready for the next adventure.
JR
xxxxx
PS
SEE YOU SOON MOM!!! xxxx
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