9&10/6/26 Zoom , zoom

 

    We arrived at ST Pancras about 1-0 mins earlier than our allotted time , and were ushered in to check in, which was nice as we avoided a lot of people and got through easily and quickly . It also meant we could get a seat in the departure lounge before the hoards that were about to descend upon us . Before long we were again alerted our train was ready for boarding , so away we went . Found our carriage and our seats , battled with luggage storage , but found we were sitting at the other end of the carriage , so i went & got the 2 suitcases and brought then down near us , where there was plenty of storage . Before long we were off , seeing some countryside in between hedge rows . It seemed like a short period of time had passed when we entered the tunnel under the English Channel - all 31.5 miles or 54klms !! As we were zooming along at 300 odd kms per hour , it didn't take long for that 54klms to wizz by , and we were in France . The weather was a bit hit & miss , with showers & cloudy . Interesting when it rains , the drops form horizontal lines on the windows 🤔😆

     After only 1and a half hours , we were at Lille in the north of France near Belgium . Getting off the eurostar , we headed across to the Westfield shopping centre and got lunch , before figuring out our bus route to get to the apartment . Lille will be our home for 5 nights , and speaking of it - our apartment is the 3 windows above the white van . This is our street , only about 3klms from the city centre .

    Terrace housing is the norm here , but funnily enough there are back yards here that are quite large . There's free parking if you are lucky enough to find a spot !!

     We decided to go for a wander around to acclimatise ourselves a bit , finding our way back to the canal we crossed in the bus . There's a lock here that has its own control tower - hmm must be busy , and with that a canal boat arrived into the lock . We watched the lock gates close and walked to the other end .

   By the time we got there the lock had filled and the boat was nearly ready to continue its journey up the canal . This was a fully loaded one judging by the lack of height in the sides of the boat above water line .

   We walked up the canal on the left of the next photo . Lille is set out well for walkers & cyclists with paths & tracks everywhere , including dedicated lanes on the roads as well . 

  The canal started to get a bit busy , with a large boat approaching and a smaller one heading back toward the lock . There was one on the side of the canal , where an excavator was unloading rocks from it to reinforce the side where the concrete walls had collapsed in .

     Shows the different sized boats using the canal .

     We crossed the bridge and walked through the edge of the Citadelle Parkland ( that's for another day ) , then came across this street art near the lock control tower .

    With that done we headed back to the apartment , then found a supermarket about 260m away , so we could get some supplies . Here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1Bl_9HsBZsF-2_StycNyFsOzHdxFuDCQ&usp=sharing