A Lille trip to France. Chapter 2, losing ourselves.

A good night sleep helped us prepare for breakfast! A real feast of breads with everything we had bought the day before. More rilletes, pates, cheeses, fresh tomatoes mixed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, juices, tee and coffee.  In high spirits and well fed, we decided to take a scenic route via the canal and local gardens to the citadel and then planned to walk into the town centre. What we didn’t really think too much about is just how hot it was going to be. Before we were even 100 metres from our start point I had lead us on a wrong path. I don’t think anyone had walked it in a while as there were cobwebs between all of the trees and bushes and the path endedup leading to a closed gate. A small section of the canal had been isolated from the main run inside of this park we had walked through and we did see a few large carp in there as well as dragonflies butterflies and even one cool fungi.We doubled back on ourselves after Dave had tried to climb up and over a wall of dirt and roots to no avail. Once we actually found the correct path we located a route to  the the tow path for the canal.Along the route Dave was randonly picking sloes and trying them and hatching a plan to come back and harvest some for sloe gin the following day. We reached the canal which was well kept and fairly quiet. The fisherman in me was constantly on the lookout and I did see several perch swim off as we approached. Oh well, they will have to wait for a time I am prepped and ready with a rod and some lures.

We followed the canal until it met with the park which we had read and seen on a map contained a large citadel. We stopped for some water and to enjoy the sunshine a little (and to rest).We wandered through the park and around the citadel which was fairly interesting but really we were all in dire need of a sitdown somewhere and a drink so we didn’t spend a lot of time in any one place. We marched into the town centre and very quickly into a famous cake shop. We ordered teas and ice coffee and Dave and Emily shared these 2 very fancy looking deserts. The tea was so good they decided to buy more whilst I stood outside.Next on the agenda was a drink and another sit down but via some more walking and exploring of the town centre.So….we found the beer. 😀. We found a pub/brewery with a range of beers and took a table outside. We each picked 4 local beers to try for a set price.Thirsty work but it was fun and the beers were delicious. I finished with a lovely cherry thing which was like a liquid desert after my night beers and ale. We continued to explore for a while and found some really nice looking old french buildings as well as a cathedral and a small open top internal market square. Some really incredible architecture and stylish design! With all of us considering sleeping a spell before dinner we headed back to the appartment again. I cheated with a  few snacks, whilst Dave had a snooze and Emily started getting ready.

I found a restaurant on TripAdvisor which boasted the local speciality ‘Le Welsh’ which was a local adaptation of Welsh Rarebit. 

It was described in a guidebook as ‘ French bread, toasted, covered in ham and mustard soaked in beer and then topped with a pint of melted cheese’. Well they had me at hello!

I booked a table and we went for it. Dave and Emily shared Le Welsh and another local dish which was a very rich and tasty beef stew. I went for Le Welsh topped with a fried egg. 

It was so so rich. About half way through I was wandering if I had made the right choice but it was so so tasty I didn’t think for too long me has soon eaten the whole thing along with some very crispy chips. 

It was awesome and I will definitely look to recreate it at home soon. 

I read a little history as wanted to find out how this dish had made it to Lille and found out that an old mariner used to import in from the UK regularly and sell it in the seaside towns such as Le Touquet, Calais and Dunkirk and eventually it was adapted in local boozers way they added beer and spread inland to Lille as Le Welsh.
Cheesy story for a cheesy dish.

The following day we hit up the Calais wine superstore which I may describe in a  separate post another day. I have been twice now as designated driver but its still fun and can’t wait to go when I can enjoy the wine.