Easy breezy day and we learn about Welsh food from a French menu

Today was one of those lovely vacation days when we decided to toss our plans and just hang out. We did so in the apartment until we were hungry and then ventured out for some local fare. On our walk to find a place, we finally were able to visit Lille old town, which was our day one plan here that was interrupted by a festival, as you may recall. Lille is charming and full of personality. It has those kinds of buildings that seem like they only exist in a movie set or as an illustration in a fairy tale. We also visited a book store that had 7 floors (actually 9, now that I think about it - in France and much of Europe, the first floor is floor zero - and since it had a basement, that's 9). That's a lot of books! Weirdly, the elevator only went to the even floors so since Mom is not friends with stairs right now, I have no idea what odd books exist here in Lille.

For lunch, we chose a little French cafe off of the main square. The atmosphere was quite nice and, as expected, the menu was in French. By now our twinning decisioning seems almost comical, because once again, Mom and I were eyeing the same item on the menu. It was called Welsh Au Cheddar Galleway. Vegetarian. Google helped us figure out that a Galleway is some kind of dish with bread and egg and cheese, so we went for it. Our first version came out carnivorous, so we had to send it back where it came from. And then our second attempt arrived. Galleway a la France turned out to be a huge skillet filled with pretty much just cheese, not an egg to be seen. There was a slice of bread in the middle, soaked with the cheese mixture and it was served with fries. Oh and beer was in the cheese. Tasty, yes, but it became a too much cheese situation quite quickly. We probably should have asked how French Galleway is prepared, because prepared we were not for it.

We spent the afternoon in our apartment, looking out upon the main street, with a beautiful view of the neighboring buildings. The sun came through our open French windows and we read our books. Well, Mom read most of the time. I fell asleep and took a nap that was absolutely glorious, refreshing, and needed. Now it's evening. We've made a change in plans for later in our trip. Instead of staying at Mont-Saint-Michele, we will overnight in Saint Malo (must stay in a place with Saint in the name), where our ferry to the QM2 departs from. A truly unruly knee made that decision for us, but we're seeing the Mont from the ground and also visiting a lovely port town. Win-win! Early to bed tonight - Brussels is tomorrow!