Vive la LIFE: 2012

"One day, the young Lydéric sees his family slaughtered by the evil Phinéart. He is then raised by a hermit who lets a deer give him her milk and gives him an axe as a toy. Years pass... and Lydéric, a true hero, can chop down a tree with a single blow of his axe! At last, the time for revenge comes - he challenges Phinéart to a duel and kills him. This happened on June 15th 640. King Dagobert rewards Lydéric by granting him Phinéart's possessions and naming him administrator of Flanders.

That is the legend of Lydéric and Phinéart, the founders of Lille" (http://motherearthtravel.com/france/lille/history.htm)

Don't you just love the look of this building?

Lille is the largest city of the French Flanders in northern France. French Flanders, I learned, was mostly a flat marshland in the area just south of the North Sea and it consisted of two regions, French Westhoek and Lilloise Flanders, where Lille is now located. It was once part of the ancient Frankia under the Merovingian monarch's then it fell under the control of the English and then the Spanish. When the French gained back power during Louis XIV's reign this part was returned. Lille is now the fourth-largest metropolitan city in the country behind Paris, Lyon and Marseille. It is situated on the Deule River, on the Belgium boarder. My parents love it and it was easy to see why. You will notice that I didn't manage to get a picture of my parent's apartment building but I did catch my Mom's love of the Joan of Arc statue is right there when you leave every day. I tried again and again to get a good one of her and think I did with the last one.

They actually celebrated her day while I was there and they laid a wreath at her feet which was rather cool. Ok, enough of that, moving on...

Down the street from their door is a courtyard with two buildings on opposite sides from each other. I believe that they are government buildings but that was not the interesting part. Keep reading...

While I was there we had great warm weather so as we were walking across this courtyard there was group of people and they were setting up for a big promotional event. Men and women were handing out packages of cookies and there was a semi with a stage on the side that was set up for a major rally type event, with maybe a DJ or a band or an MC of events. That is not the interesting part either but it set the stage for the drama to follow. Now Dad had walked towards them to ask if I could get the cookies picture so I saw the whole thing.

This is the injured party, a cookie. I am not sure what he was supposed to be doing but I think that they were not ready for him and I believe he was told to go wait in the truck so while he looks like a happy cookie on the outside, on the inside he was having a really bad day.

First he spent a couple of minutes trying to get to the truck. The obstacle was that he was separated from the truck by the "rope". He tried to go through the rope, go under the rope and go around the rope but he could not manage by himself so he had to have a couple of the girls come over and stretch the rope up and over his cookie body so that he could get to the truck.

The next obstacle happened when he tried to walk up the stairs. The top part of his body was to big and it caused his balance to be off. Then he could not see the steps so he kept falling sideways. The same girls had to come and pull him up the stairs to the stage, one pulling in front and one pushing from behind.

The final obstacle was the cookie costume itself. The poor cookie struggled for a couple of minutes, wiggling and shaking this way and that until finally the girls got a good hold and then PULLED! Needless to say I called Dad back, as I didn't think he would be in the mood to have his picture taken at that time (hehe).

Although the legend at the beginning puts the foundation of the city at 640, the town first appears in the archives in the year 1066. However, some archaeological digs suggest that the area may have been inhabited as early as 2000 BC. How is that for old.

During that time Lille has seen its share of history. French Flanders changed hands multiple times over the centuries. England had it, sort of, during the span of the 1200's. From 1304 to 1369 it fell under French rule after the Franco-Flemish War. It then fell under the rule of the Duchy of Burgundy next when Philip the Bold married Margaret III (Countess of Flanders) in 1369. Philip the Bold was even more powerful than the King of France and Lille thus became one of the three capitals of Duchy.

At the death of the last duke of Burgandy in 1477, Mary of Burgundy married Maximilian of Austria. At the of the reign of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Spanish Flanders fell to his eldest son and it stayed in Spanish hands until the reign of Philip IV of Spain.

In 1667, under the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, Lille once again came under French rule. The city was occupied by the Dutch during the War of the Spanish from 1708 to 1713 and although there were riots and destruction to churches, the city had very little to do with the French Revolution. In 1792 the Austrians tried to take over and while they destroyed many houses and the main church of the city, Lille held fast and the Austrian army left after only 8 days. It was during Napoleon's continental blockade against England that led to Lille's becoming an even greater textile industry. Lille became known for its cotton and textile industry and this continued until World War I.

In October 1914, during World War I, the troops in Lille were able to stop the Germans from taking the city for about 9 days. They tricked them into believing that they possessed more artillery than they really had (they only had a single cannon). The German bombardments first destroyed over 2,200 buildings and homes and then after they found that they had been deceived they burned down an entire section of the town and then followed that up by becoming Lille's occupants. Lille was finally liberated by the British on October 17, 1918.

During the Battle of France, Lille was attacked by German forces for several days. Because of the prolonged French defense, many Allied troops were able to escape to Dunkirk. When Belgium was invaded, the citizens of Lille began to flee the city in large numbers. Lille became part of the zone under control of the German commander in Brussels. Fearing the British push, the German troops began to leave Lille on 3 September, 1944. Following this, the Lille resistance managed to retake part of the city before the British tanks arrived. Rationing came to an end in 1947, and by 1948, some normality had returned to Lille.

There was so much of the city to see but the best part for me, however, was being able to see the city that my parents have grown to love through their eyes. Case in point...I got to go to their favorite bakery "Paul". You haven't lived until you have an eclair from "Paul". It was MMMMMMMM GOOD!!!!!

As they took me to these places and talked to me about their experiences with the city and its people, I could hear the pride and love that they have come to feel for this, their adopted home. Thanks for sharing it with me!

Sorry for the delay, apparently my pictures were too big and I had to shrink them down to size. I still have some to convert but I have created enough space to keep going, so onward....

Brugge (the Dutch spelling), Belgium is a very beautiful city. My parents had visited the city a couple of weeks before I arrived and they thought that it would be a good place for me to get a good sense of the area and I was enchanted.

One of the ways into the "old city"

The old city square

Different view of the city square

There is my Dad

My Mom

And me (if you couldn't tell)

Established in the 1200's, it is sometimes referred to the "Venice of the North" because there is a canal that surrounds the "old city" and you can take a boat or gondola and ride through it. At one time, it was the "chief commercial city" of the world because of its strategic location at the crossroads of the northern Hanseatic League trade and the southern trade routes. The wool market, a woollens weaving industry, and the market for cloth as well as Normandy grain and Gascon wines were some of the the items that went through Brugge during its hey day. In fact, in 1277 the first merchant fleet from Genoa appeared in the port of Bruges, first of the merchant colonies that made Brugge the main link to the trade of the Mediterranean.

In the 15th century, Philip the Good (how would you like that as your name), duke of Burgundy, set up court in Brugge, attracting a number of artists, bankers, and other prominent people from all over Europe. Weavers and spinners of Brugge were thought to be the best in the world and new Flemish-school, oil-painting techniques became world renown. The first book in English ever printed was published in Brugge by William Caxton and Edward IV and Richard III of England spent time in exile during this time period.

Starting around 1500, the Zwin channel, which had given the city its prosperity, started silting. My dad said that there was so much sand that the channel and the ports became land and the city lost its ability to be the crossroads for trade and went into a deep decline. During the 17th century, the lace industry took off, and in the last half of the 19th century, Brugge has become one of the world's first tourist destinations. After 1965 the original medieval city experienced a "renaissance". Residential and commercial structures were restored and historic monuments and churches generated tourism and economy in the ancient downtown area. International tourism has boomed and it has become like the Park City of Utah or Jackson Hole in Wyoming.

Mom and I were able to do some shopping as you could not help but notice that Belgium chocolate and Belgium lace were being sold out of every store (they would trade off, one would be lace then the next chocolate then lace then chocolate and so on and on). When Dad went to pay the meter, Mom and I indulged in a Belgium waffle covered in chocolate sauce and whip cream (we were just thinking of Dad's health) while wandering in and out of every store, trying to find the best chocolate and lace to bring home.

Oh no, he will be crushed!!!!

Dad said this is how they trimmed there trees for easy harvesting

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!!!!

Surprise!!!!

Here are some looks at the different architecture that was all over the city. No two buildings were the same.

Interesting thing is that in Belgium all the churches have been converted into museums. You pay a fee to get into the church and get to see all of the art, but they are no longer places of worship. That being the case I only visited one, The Church of Our Lady.

While the art was beautiful, I picked this particular one because it housed Michelangelo's sculpture Madonna and Child. It is believed to be the only sculpture to have left Italy within his lifetime. It was worth the price of admission.

Dad then drove around and allowed me to take pictures of whatever caught my eye. It actually turned out that Dad would see something interesting and then I would get out and take a picture. It worked well because I got some interesting ones.