Sunday 19 September 2010

Pity There's Only One A Year !

Sonata :

Lille was huge fun . We had a marvellous time !

Thanks to judicious consumption of moulles frites and gigantic sandwiches , not to mention the very nice breakfast buffet at our hotel we walked our socks off and were even to be seen on Saturday night bouncing about to a fabulous band outside La Maison De Batterie in the center of town .
On Saturday , the Braderie not beginning till around 3 o 'clock-ish , we went to La Piscine , a beautiful museum in Roubaix which has a lovely collection of 20th century paintings and sculpture housed in a stunning Art Deco swimming pool . Well worth a visit if you can . The Friends of the museum's blog , le file de l'eau http://amisdelapiscine.blogspot.com/ is worth a visit too , even if you don't read French .

But then we got down to business and joined tout Lille in a hunt for something pretty , rare or downright strange in street after street of elbow to elbow people .

We soon learnt that you had to be quick . This was whisked from under our noses while we admired it


And though there was plenty of tat to be had ( or not ! )




there were lots of affordable and pretty treasures to be found , while hours could be spent wandering in and out of side streets admiring picturesque corners , lovely shop windows and buskers ( it took us a while to identify a rendition of "Chiquitita" played by a Peruvian duo on the pan-pipes . I must say , it improved it no end .) And , above all , people-watching .
On Sunday morning we went to Wazemmes , a little further out , and after eating yet more moulles in a workman's cafe ( though I'm going back one day for their cous-cous ) we worked our way back to the center through serious stalls , full of eminently collectible delights .


We finally staggered onto the train and , despite having to stand between Antwerp and Rotterdam , clutching two baguettes , a leatherbound volume of sheet music




two kilos of buttons




and bobbins



I got home ready to do it all over again at the first opportunity .

15 comments:

Von said...

What fun!!

Rattling On said...

So jealous. And fancy missing out on a knitting Barbie...

Lesley said...

Fabulous button haul!

Fer said...

Wow, I suffered a tinge of envy when I saw the words "two kilos of buttons"!! Such pretty ones too.

rachel said...

Why not get up a charabanc outing for your loyal Followers next time? We'd love to come with you....

Carolina said...

Okay, no matter what you say, next time I'm coming with you ;-)

(fear not, I probably can't go anyway)

Your photos are great. The little pink horse is a must-have of course ;-)

Tania said...

No doubt the Chiquitita improvement was entirely due to the blessed delay in recognition? What an outing! Worth it if only for the blurred sighting of a Knitting Barbie...

Friko said...

I'd have to have my hands tied behind my back and a sign round my neck saying "does not succumb to temptation", in triplicate.

Mind you, then I wouldn't have enjoyed the outing as much as you obviously did.

molly said...

Sounds like a great time---and plenty pickin's!

Elizabeth Musgrave said...

Looks great, love those bobbins, what fab colours.

Jinksy said...

I envy you the reels of thread! And I want to say thanks for the comment on napple notes about the lack of braces! LOL :)

little pink room said...

I'm jealous. You did well!

colleen said...

Eek! Those buttons!!!

Liz Hinds said...

oh, I want to go!

Oh, I see Rachel has suggested a charabanc outing for next year: count me in!

Planet Penny said...

Heavenly Mother-of-Pearl buttons, and are you sure you managed to resist the shocking pink fur fabric unicorn?