Next weekend, I will be in Nantes (more on that later), so this past weekend was really my last one in Lille. Luckily, Monday was a holiday, so it was a 3 day weekend. On Monday, I decided to go to one of the museums I hadn’t visited yet, checked out the mall, a new park and had dinner with a new friend!
The Musée de l’Hospice Comtesse is a former hospital turned museum. Lille has an overarching theme of “Fiesta” this year, which has turned into a lot of popup art exhibits, which you’ll see in some of these pictures.
CourtyardOne of the large rooms, which holds their current temporary art exhibitI thought the ceiling of the chapel was really cool. They had a large screen in front of the altar for the temporary exhibit, so I couldn’t get the full effect. Below is a video of what they were playing on the screen (I don’t understand modern art).Peeked behind the screen to see the altar.This painting shows the space as a hospital-it was run mostly by nuns and you can see the little bed area each person had in the back (with space they could put personal belongings). Through the doorway shows the nuns caring for the very sickest/dying.The garden where they grew medicinal herbs (which is still maintained)One of the rooms of the original hospital-this was more or less office spaceThe upper floor is now devoted to art and history of Lille, which I found really interesting.The other side of the courtyard with another garden.
After the museum, I went to the mall to walk around because I hadn’t been yet and it was near where I was supposed to meet someone later on. It was just a standard mall, but some of the shops had some neat things. Including a Ticket to Ride-Paris Edition!
After the mall, I met up with a visiting professor’s wife for a garden visit and dinner. The garden we went to is called Jardin des Geants (Giants’ Garden)
They had these cool animal sculptures coming out of the wall-they’re actually fountains they just weren’t turned on.Ponds-can you spy 3 turtles in this picture?A really neat pathway over the waterA giant!I’m not sure if this was training this bush/tree to do something or whatWater lilies!! Can you spy the frog? (we heard him before we saw him)
Then we had to walk around a bit before the restaurant opened for dinner at 7, so we did some errands.
The pink guys are down, but now there is the yellow jersey to celebrate the Tour de France starting here in July
Finally, dinner time….it was well worth the wait!
Le Complet (ham, egg and cheese)….I am a bit of a crepe snob because my first study abroad experience was in the region of France crepes come from, so the savory crepes must be made of buckwheat and folded in this style!The dessert ones should be on what we would consider a normal crepe and are folded differently depending on the filling. This one was the Kinder-Nutella inside, with white chocolate and crunchy bits on top
All in all a great day and a good mix of culture, outdoor time and great food!
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