Cats can't undress

Today our hosts (Sandrine and Pierre) came with us on the train into Lille. They had previously bought online tickets for the train and, after a long time at the ticket machine, managed to get us two tickets. 

The train was quick (probably making up for yesterday's disaster).

First stop was a café of Pierre's liking, where we had hot chocolate, European style. Pierre had a tiny coffee. I feel that Annette may have queried such a small drink, but back to the hot chocolate. It came in a glass, see-through mug containing liquid chocolate, to which hot milk was then added (chocolat chaud). Unless of course you also got cream and added it after the milk (chocolat chaud viennois). The perfect drink. 

We then headed to the information centre to await a one hour city bus trip to start. (Note for our or your future reference, there is a free toilet outside.)

It was a good tour that showed all the main points of the city.

At one stage, we got caught behind a car. It was stopped at some pop-up barriers. The driver told us that he had no car keys. What? He ran over to some shops, came back and finally a woman came back with the car keys and gave us all an almighty get f'd gesture, like we had done something stupid.

The tour ended and we went to an old church that had been redesigned and modernised on the outside by an architect. Fail. The inside was very nice.

From there to a restaurant that I believe did mainly crepes. Yum. I had egg, curry, pineapple and cashews on mine whilst Annette had salmon, scrambled eggs and lumpfish. What her menu lost in translation was the part after lumpfish, which was roe.

Oh, and for all you coriander haters, I had that as well, and you're wrong.

We were then left to our own devices. I secured nomination for "husband of the year" by informing of a fabric shop I had seen on the tour.

We went into some shops, walked around the old town, went into a book-magazine-poster sale and fell asleep in the park, as there was not a train for a long time. 

Annette's European sim card ran out of data so it was up to me to navigate, yet somehow we still managed to get to the station. After many messages, all was good when Pierre met us at the station.

Back home, he then put on his lab coat to become bbq chef du jour.

Annette later, and probably correctly, used Google translate to describe him as mischievous (espiègle). Sandrine agreed. She has been working tirelessly to translate. When the cat came out and lay on the driveway, she typed something into her phone. Cats can't undress, it said and if you are hot and furry and the driveway is cool, it makes sense.

I did forget that we were initiated into after dinner cheese yesterday. I scored 3 out of 5, as those with mould and charcoal scared me. I was brave and ate the goat cheese. Annette was brave but spat out the goat cheese. 2/5 for her.

Once more exhausted, sleep was very fast, but being light so late is still weird.