Last minute(as we always seem to do), Emily booked our transport across the channel. Meaning that come Saturday morning we would be dusting of the ‘sil vous plaits’ and ‘au reviors’ and wondering why even bother to buy bread or pastry in the UK at all.
The whole channel tunnel crossing thing I can’t help but think it’s normally a nightmare but in fact generally it is pretty damn efficient and if you arrive early you often get on an earlier crossing as well. But the stigmatism doesn’t seem to shift.
Switch off your engine, wind down your windows, check what your old school friend had for lunch on facebook and your pretty much in France. It is that easy.
Upon arrival we headed to Dunkirk. I looked up some parking near the beach and soon realised that just about everyone in northern France had the same idea so we had to drive around a little to find somewhere to actually stop the car.
As per usual with our travelling we had majorly ballsed up eating times and we couldn’t find any restaurants still serving food as they usually all stop serving lunch at 2pm. So a proper lunch was off the cards.
We had a little wonder around the beach and the area around and soaked in a little atmosphere before buying some deliciously sweet baked goods from a beachside shop and fining somewhere pleasant to sit and enjoy them.
Dunkirk’s beach is very sandy and is miles long and has plenty of space for everyone. I would highly recommend it if you are looking for somewhere to play beach games of generally worship the sun. Sections of the beach have sunbuds, beach huts, volleyball and from what we saw it was lined end to end with restaurants sops and bars.
We were lucky enough to be hit by 33°C of sunshine on the day so a quick break was all we could manage without the correct beach attire 👙.
Once back inside the delights of an airconditioned vehicle we headed to Lille which was to be our mainstay of the trip. Knowing we were heading to a self catered apartment we took a nearby pit stop to a supermarket just outside of Lille.
If you love good food. The French supermarkets never disappoint.
Meats & cheeses were high on our agenda but we also got wine, milk, bread etc. so we had everything we needed (and some) for snacks and hot drinks throughout the stay.
When we arrived at our Air BNB, we were met by our host who showed us through the multiple layers of security and then around what was a lovely well kept 2 bed appartment. It had everything we could possibly need including cooking items, ironing boards even waffle machines. The rooms were immaculate and in general the whole Air BnB experience (this being our first) was faultless for us on the trip giving us confidence using it again in future.
After a cup of tea, some conversation and some amazing snacks including duck and pork rilletes we decided to start getting ready for an evening out and a late night dinner.
I used Tripadvisor to locate a restaurant serving up what was agreed should be the main focus for the evening….. Steak Frites.
Now every steak eater I know wouldn’t turn up a chance to eat steak in France and we weren’t about to either!
The restaurant we found was a fair walk from out hotel but I had managed to find a table with a 20% discount when booked through ‘the fork’ app and the reviews and pictures left me desperate to get there and sink my teeth into some meat (sorry for anyone vegetarian reading this).
We arrived, sat down, drank some wine and ordered out dishes.
Dave (Emily’s dad) ordered some lamb which looked good and he was very happy with and both Emily and I ordered rib cuts of steak with chips salad and sauce and it was cooked to absolute perfection. Such a tasty dish!
We had a little wonder around the area surrounding the restaurant and found this very interesting building which was lit up with artificial lights giving the illusion that it was pained red.
On our walk back to the accomodation we realised that some of the area we had to walk through was a well know area for ‘ladies of the night’ but we felt safe enough walking the streets at night and took in some of the views of the city in darkness.
Please sign up to follow the blog and keep an eye out for chapter 2. In the mean time a few moe pictures below…….
How To Trick A Fish 