Au Revoir Paris....Hello North of France

Sunday 28th November
Checked out from the Best Western Victor Hugo Hotel, brought my final Parisian souviners, had lunch at one of the restaurants in Champs Elysees then headed to the Charles de Gaulle Etoile Metro Station to transfer to Gare du Nord. Caught one of the bullet trains from Paris to Lille, a city in the north of France. It was only a 1 hour train ride, which felt like a 30 minute ride (well duh it's a bullet train, it zoom, zoom, zooms!) The train arrived at Lille-Europe Station...."Viv - Welcome to Lille!" Waited outside for Céline and Seb to pick us up. Whoa, for a girl who is accostumed to warmer temperature, it was like a temperature shock to be in a place which was 2°c and windy...BRRR! When it is cold, it is okay-ish, but when its windy, it is icy cold. I think since I touched down in Paris, I have lost count on how many times I habe said F"_- it's cold!
Céline and her husband qarrived and picked us up and a 30 minute or so drive from the station their parent's place in a small town. Unpacked our gear and settled down in the kitchen chatting for a while and then they left. Rémy and I rested for a while and then got ready to head to Céline and Seb's place for drinks, watching football, chatting with them and then later on their parents arrived to visit before heading back home. Rémy and I stayed a little bit more and then just before midnight went back home.

Le Ch'tis as seen in the French movie Welcome to the Sticks, Céline; Seb and Rémy told me some ch'tisque that I may see or hear during my stay here in the north of France. The movie was based round the area, a little further than Lille, but I guess it covers part of Lille. Making me intrigued about the Ch'tis.

Monday 29th November
A cold Monday and while Rémy went off to uni mid-morning, I had a very lazy Monday morning. It was cold and some snow outside, tucked myself back to bed on facebook (of course) and watching French programmes, even dubbed American soap opera Days of our Lives. Trying to grasps some words or even try to understand, however I only managed to hear verbs I recognised (d'oh!) Towards the evening had lovely dinner and then went to Rémy's sisters place to watch Barcelona vs. Real Madrid. OMG.... I haven't seen so much close up of Cristiano Ronaldo, since the FIFA 2010 World Cup! Had to laugh at Real Madrid's goalkeeper and Captain Iker Casillas because he was so pissed off that his team was losing. So the score was 5 - 0, Barcelona won. During the game things were heating up as some kind of punch up with the players from both team and then on another part, Ronaldo pushing one of the men in the opposing team (Barcelona)....I think he got a yellow card for that. After the game chatted and drank somemore and just before 1am left their place and headed back home.

Tuesday 30th November
Still fighting off my friggen jetlag, stayed at home while Rémy went to class till 5pm. Nothing, just ate, showered, watched télé, facebook then ZZZZzzzzzz... . Oh and inbetween stared outside the window seeing the snow topped fields....ZZZzzzzzz!