Katelyn a la mode: Beer and Chocolate and Waffles, OH MY!

Hello friends and family!! I am sorry for the delay on this blog—I was on vacation with three of my friends for five or six days (November 7th-12th) and I am just now starting to catch up with life and get back on track! I went on vacation because Tuesday, November 12th was Armistice Day here in Europe (Veteran’s Day for everyone back home).
The trip started with a night train into Paris. Then we were stranded in the train station in Paris for about 8 hours due to serious vandalism of the tracks but still made it into Brussels, Belgium by about 5:00 p.m. We walked around in the Grand Place, illuminated by wonderful hanging lights, and hopped into nearly EVERY chocolate store for free samples!! We spent the next two days touring the city and its sites. Brussels is my favorite city that I have ever visited. Its historic buildings are breath-taking and yet it has a modern flair as well with all of the EU buildings and centers. It is the capitol of the European Union and many refer to it as “The Washington DC of Europe.” Every street smelled of chocolate and waffles and my tummy has never been more content!
On Monday evening we took a late train from Brussels to Lille, an adorable city in northern France. The city had an antique Grand Place with many colors and a German-feel to the buildings. There was a parade on Tuesday that we were able to observe before setting out to explore. We had about 2 hours of rain that day during which we hid in a restaurant for a relaxing lunch. For the rest of our stay, the skies were blue and the sun was shining. Just like we did in Brussels, we started by taking a tour bus of the city so that we could get a bearing of where everything was located and exactly what we wanted to visit. We explored the city and took pictures on the first day and the second day was our “enrichment” day. For the second day, we spent the morning visiting the house where Charles de Gaulle was raised and spent the afternoon in the Palace of Beaux-Arts, a famous art museum. We caught a train back to Montpellier around 5:00 p.m. and arrived a bit after 11:00 p.m. I was EXHAUSTED by the end of the trip but so very content with the vacation!
I have attached pictures of the trip below as well as some pictures from this past Saturday when I went to visit the Haribo factory in Uzes! It is the largest candy factory in Europe and they make THE BEST gummy candies that I have ever eaten! To Mme Zicari’s class, I will answer your blog questions just as soon as I get those road sign and store sign pictures taken that were requested!! Sorry again for the delay!

BRUSSELS