Day 11: Kortrijk to Lille

September 6, 2023

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Kortrijk seemed a little more attractive in the morning than it had the night before. Here are some of the buildings near our hotel:

We made our way back downtown, and looked again at some of the major fancy buildings that they do have:

Then we crossed the river Leie, where yesterday we saw the two round fort type buildings, and prepared to get on the route to Lille. To cross the canal we took a lift bridge that had a unique design. Instead of swinging aside o swinging up from one end, it simply lifted itself straight up.

We followed the river on the type of bike path that we had now come to expect. It was so pleasant and restful.

In the little town of Bessegem, a signboard told the story of how this area had been famous for flax and also the export of geese. Fun to read. You can see from the map (below) that was part of the display, that as we proceeded along the blue line, we were rushing headlong to the France/Belgium border.

Dodie put forward the proposition brown and white cows are more pretty than black and white ones. I am inclined to agree, since brown is more "earthy" and gentle, like in brown eggs. But black and white certainly dominates the poster/mug/tee shirt market - more catchy maybe.

The riverside also had some other animals, like mares with sleepy foals, and geese.

So here you see us pootling along, on the perfect bike path, looking at the animals, but unsuspectingly closing on the French border. We continued oblivious as we hung a left off the river and proceeded into the town of Halluin. Dodie piped up first: "Hey, what happened to the bike lanes?" Then I noticed that the customary gorgeous Belgian/Dutch buildings had turned sort of crumbly. Zut! We had entered France!

Welcome to France (no bike lane for you!)

Of course we do like France, and will soon be enjoying all those great uniquely French things. The first of these was a market, with a chicken BBQ. And across the street a church, with a promise of being cool and dark on this sweltering day. The church was called St Piat, and aside from the cool and dark part, did not have too much of note. We have been thinking about that mystic lamb though, and this church did have a lamb theme at its entrance.

Inside, as part of the carved pulpit, we see a lamb again, though an awfully small one.

Speaking of things small, we also encountered first one and then an inordinate number of the new Citroen Ami electric car - the one that looks much the same coming and going.

There were at least fifteen of these lined up by the roadside. Odd man out in the lineup was one Renault Twizzy!

Our disappointment about the bike ways was changed for a bit as we found ourselves on "Veloroute de la Deule", and soon we found that this was also EV 5!

The fishing bird was complemented by our first French fisherman. This is a species that can sit by any water, in any weather, and never move while catching nothing. So strange.

When we did roll into Lille, we had to cancel any thoughts about France not measuring up to Belgium. Lille turned out to have an abundance of large and fancy buildings, plus many great narrow cobbled streets, lined with atmospheric four story apartment buildings, and shops.

Here are about a dozen shots of what all that looked like. You can flip through them quickly to get the idea. We of course had to bounce over the cobbles in the heat, for the same effect.

Our B&B was about 5 km out of town, so it was back onto EV 5. When we arrived at the place (according to the street and number) there was only the large solid door of the row house, and no indication at all that some tourist accommodation might lie behind it. We rang the bell - no answer - so we phoned the number given on Booking.com. This produced only a recorded message, in French, saying leave a message. No indication we were even calling the right place. Oh, do we hate that! I recorded my usual "I have a reservation and I am standing right outside your door, so where are you??" thing. I then tried the doorbell - more insistently and voila! the door was answered by the very pleasant young man -Guillaume. We soon got to meet the house dog and cats, the bikes went into the garden and we were installed in our room. All swell!

P.S. I had help doing this blog:

For a while, anyway!

Today's ride: 52 km (32 miles)
Total: 440 km (273 miles)

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