This month saw the weather finally turn towards summer. It started with rain and tiny hail, then mid 50’s and by the end had seen the rains peter out and the temperatures hit the upper 80’s. My favorite time of year. 😀

Our friend Ana, who runs a restaurant in an underground food court called Kitchen Market, was celebrating Enfants day – in Mexico the equivalent of Mother’s and Father’s day. We went to enjoy some great food, music and dancing. Got to visit with Ana, husband Max, her mother visiting from the states, and see their kids who are growing up quickly (at least to us).

Then we packed and headed off to London to meet Calvin, our old friend from Oakland. It’d been 8 years since we left Oakland and when we got together it was as if no time had passed. In getting the train, we were offered 1st class seats on the Eurostar by our Lille friend, Jack, who works for them and has family and friends’ benefits. We’d never gone 1st class and were treated to a separate relaxing lounge and boarding, which was such a treat. The luncheon was quite delicious too – the trip was wonderfully relaxing and quiet.

The hotel in London turned out to be quite different from our regular choices. Even Calvin confessed that his friend had picked it because it was near the concert that they were attending. The Moxy, run by Marriott who boasts over 30 different brands, is different from the regular Marriott venue we normally stay at. The entire place was decorated in neon lights and their check in was done by machine, much like an ATM. Billed as having the ‘vibe’ of the current times, they tout their large open bar lounge as space created to encourage a ‘communal atmosphere for conversations’. In other words, they spent a large amount of space and money to the bar and the rooms are barely bigger than the bed. You won’t want to spend time in the room and clearly should spend your money in their bar. Seriously, the room was small enough that I hit my head on the shower wall when I bent to sit on the toilet and guys, you all know that I’m pretty short. The only window, quite small, faced a large lit advertising marquee (think NY Time’s Square), so we left the curtains closed since it was glaring and lit the room 24/7. A real selling point on us ever returning.

We walked out to find a pub for dinner and came across a place called Waxy O’Connor’s. Once inside, you are facing a huge two story carved tree and plenty of cosy niches for a pint and fish and chips. Since the weather was overcast and rainy, we retreated to the hotel after dinner, then watched a movie on the television. What – you thought we’d do something more exciting? Sorry, no bar ‘communal conversation’ for us, I’m afraid.

The next day we met Calvin for brunch at a place called Farmer J’s. The food was really good and fortunately we manage to arrive before the crowds showed up, as it was quite popular, otherwise we would not have been able to snag a table. Catching up with Calvin was a breeze. Because of his work schedule and three small kids, video chatting with him isn’t often nor easy. It was a pure delight to see him and after our meal we walked a bit around Piccadilly Circus. We walked through a lovely innercity park next to a grouping of food vendors in an open courtyard. The food smelled amazing and if we hadn’t just finished brunch, we would have been tasting a bunch of choices there. We accompanied him through Fortnum and Mason to pick up souvenirs before returning to the hotel. We were able to have a drink and chat more before he had to leave. With promises of trying harder to find good times for future video calls and loads of last hugs, we bid him goodbye.

A quick nap in our room and we were off to dinner at Fallow’s, a ‘modern British restaurant’ which we’d read was fabulous. Fabulous it was and there were so many things we wanted to try that it was hard to make a choice. A good many of you may be appalled but one of the best pork dishes that we’ve been fortunate enough to enjoy was in Quebec, when we ate a pig’s head. The meat was so tender and flavorful that we were grateful to have overcome our own qualms to try it. So of course when we saw it on Fallow’s menu, we decided to share it. It was incredible – so pleased to have made that choice. Yes, one picture of that and you’re sure to think we’ve lost our marbles. Trust me – it was utterly delicious! Went to bed very stuffed and very happy before we traveled back to Lille the next day.

Pancras International Train Station does not have a separate lounge and the boarding process for the trains is as awful as navigating a busy airport gating procedure. But traveling by train is still far less stressful as grabbing airline flights.

Back home, it was time to put up the mosquito screens, take our winter coats into the dry cleaners and resume making our regular variety of appointments. The mosquito screens have never been too difficult to manage; they’re simple screen material stretched over velcro tracking on each window. However, with my balancing issues, getting them up in place this year (on the third floor open windows) proved to be quite difficult. It has lead us to hunt online for a better (and safer) screen system. We’ve been unsuccessful to find something that will fit in the frames and still allow the windows to shut, but we’ll keep trying.

As the month played out and the temperatures rose to the mid 80’s, we made a point of going out every day. While we were out one day and passing by our neighborhood patisserie, we came across a young boy whose parents were having un café at Paul, and he was entertaining himself and us, close by, as he was crafting, I’m sure, a ship, or plugging a dam. You’ll have to scroll the pictures to guess for yourself.

G complained about being too hot to balance the amount of times I complained during the winter months about how cold I was. Neither set of temperatures are extreme – we just like complaining. The last weekend was the Gay Pride Parade which, like most parades here, go down our street past our balcony. I got a few strings of flags to adorn the railing and was so sure I’d done a fabulous job…until…we went down to the street to admire my handiwork. What a hot mess. I think Mrs. Brenlinger’s second grade class would have done a far better job. I’m blaming the winds for messing it up. Clearly it’s not just my balance that’s off if this is an indication of the state of my mind. So second attempt is clearly better and I had a lot of help from G in creating a grid for stuff to hang right. We’ve decided to roll and store the flags tied like this so we never have to work that hard to put them back up. Maybe I’m getting too old to do stuff like this anymore, maybe I’m just getting incompetent, or both.

After the parade, that evening, the Paris team – PSG – Paris Saint-Germain entered history with a win that gave them their 2nd Champions League, and 2nd in a row. After a suffocating final against Arsenal FC, the Parisian club won the UEFA Champions League after a shoot-out (1-1, 4 shots to 3), on Saturday night at the Ferenc Puskás Stadium in Budapest. Arsenal defender Gabriel missed the final penalty kick, handing Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) its 2nd Champions League title.

Of course the fans in France went wild. Packed onto the sidewalks outside bars showing the game or huddled around a smartphone screen in the street, tons of cheering, singing, driving down the street, hanging out of the car windows, honking and shouting. All much fun. But then, as we’ve seen in the US and elsewhere, there is an offshoot of people that are just looking for an excuse to vandalize and wreak damage. So the police come in to contain them and there is the inevitable confrontation – which is exactly what the vandals are looking for. More than 22,000 police officers and gendarmes were deployed across France, including 8,000 in the Paris region alone, which was more than for last year’s game. According to the French interior ministry, 416 people were detained nationwide, including 283 who were apprehended in Paris. This however, was the first time there was tear gas that we personally experienced in Lille, which flowed through the plaza and the streets – and into our windows before we could close them all up. I can now add getting tear gassed in my own home on the list of accomplishments. After washing my face, I went to bed with a migraine. Told G, what great fun but let’s not do this this again, OK? Got no argument from him. The riot photos below are all from Paris since G didn’t want to go out on the balcony in the tear gas for shots of our street…

That’s it for us – looking forward to the summer and hope you are all doing fine out there. A photo below of the odd art we pass in vieux Lille that G snapped.