After Marrakech another French-speaking long weekend . I had been really enjoying London foodbloggers posts on trips to Lille , Brussels & Paris as part of Eurostar Little Break Big Difference Campaign , then London Eater announced two free Eurostar tickets – if you could say why you were most deserving ? Well I had promised my mum a girly weekend & I commute through St Pancras everyday jealously eyeing the people heading to more glamourous destinations than the East Midlands so I made my pitch . I was delighted when I was picked by the lovely people at We are Social. A few week later following a few grumpy looks from my abandoned boyfriend, I was meeting my mum at St Pancras station we passed over the champagne bar in favour of Prosecco at Sourced.
Once we boarded the lovely Eurostar train & settled in with another glass of wine and magazines , we even got some delicious food in fact I so busy munching away I managed to miss the point we went into the tunnel.
We arrived the other side super-relaxed and I was ready for a packed weekend of mooching and feasting . We had a lovely two days wandering around Lille is very beautiful lots of grand & higgledy piggeldy buildings & markets.
But first some dinner I was delighted to see bone marrow on the menu, a first for me but lovely on french baguette , later I had langue de Beouf ( Beef tongue, braised in wine ) I was chuffed it tasted very similar to dish I cooked at home , though more piquant with capers and a little chilli.
You cannot really start the day in France without coffee and croissants, even though I am an exclusively tea drinker at home I was really craving plenty of bowls of milky coffee.
Saturday night was Moules and Frites, Lille is very close to the Belgium border, so the food has that edge to it , plenty of garlic , celery and parsley , with cooking liquor to dip your chips in . Accompanied by Belgium Beer Chimay.
My favourite day in France though is Sunday when it seems everyone hits the patisserie and flower shop to buy goddies and then heads off to visit their Mum . The store with the biggest queue though was Patisserie Aux Merveilleux de Fred , where you can watch them make signature Meringue cakes
The markets in France are something to aspire to and I think England is getting there but still nowhere near the variety and they get it every week , where we get Farmers Markets once a month , I can see why people hop over on the Eurostar and stock up eveything is so vibrant and everyone is as food obsessed as I am.
I am feeling culinarily inspired following my trip and after a longer than planned gap the blog juices are flowing again. Merci France and thankyou agin Eurostar Little Break Big Difference Campaign , London Eater and We are Social.
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