Fox and Kettle

It's been a while since my last blog post! I have plenty of pictures to share from the last few days we spent in Lille, France and Bruges in Belgium! We got up at the crack of dawn and drove through the early morning fog to Dover (complete with its famous white cliffs) to take the ferry to France.

It was so nice and cool and breezy that early in the morning! We arrived in France and drove through the countryside to Lille, the capital of the Nord region. We stayed in a hotel outside the city and ate lunch at La Pataterie- the Potato-ry ha! which only served dishes containing potatoes (my dream). I had creamy cheesey potatoes with bacon and onions- tartiflette! That night we took the train into the city center for exploring, and obviously more food and drink in the form of savory crepes and cidre.

The next day was . . . my birthday!!! Hooray for being old- we spent much of the day sleeping in, grocery shopping for stinky cheese, cured meats, baguettes, cider, and cornichons, and watching Cheers with Dutch subtitles. I've always thought there was something delicious about doing exactlyy what you want when you want on your birthday, even if that includes eating salami in a parking lot and wearing yoga pants in a foreign country. We drove up from Lille to Bruges to meet Hans, the owner of a B&B outside the city, who spoke perfect Dutch French and English, of course. The house was old and beautiful, if not slightly creepy, the bed was soft, and it was perfect napping/ 80s American TV show watching weather.

It rained most of the night and next morning, which was a bummer, buuut on the walk into the city we saw a rainbow :). And ate Flemish food. And Bruges was so pretty it almost seemed fake. Every street and side street is immaculate and striking. It seems that most of Europe has come to realize this, though, since the city is packed with tourists taking boat tours and horse-drawn carriage rides on 5 minute intervals. It was still great to explore the city, eat some fries with homemade mayo (fries are from Belgium and there was even a "Friet Museum" which we unfortunately decided against haha), and eventually head back to the port. We sat on the boardwalk with a picnic and watched the sunset. Time spent with someone you like even MORE after traveling with them is the best gift I could have asked for. Thanks for the most perfect birthday babe! x