Had a very full day today, was up early hoping to get into Notre Dame before the crowds. That did in fact work and at 8:30am after walking through the rat maze went in with no lines whatsoever. It is very clean and bright inside, but amazingly you can still smell a smoke/burned smell. After that a brief stop back to the apartment and then took the train from Gare de Lyon out to Fountainbleau, 40minutes, and a bus from that station to the Chateau. This is an amazing chateau. In most Chateaus you visit, it is a series of large, usually empty or near empty stone rooms, which makes the interior not very interesting. In this case, every room is completely restored, and there are many! After a doing the walk through, I walked in to the town and found a place for lunch. Then a stroll and bus ride back to the train station and back to Paris.

Started the day with a trip to the Sunday Bastille market. This is a big market with a lot of things from food to clothing etc. It was cold enough that I finally bought a scarf, nice, partly cashmere and only 10 Euros! It did help me stay warm! Then went off to see if I could find one of the properties over by pl. de Nation. Found the general area but did not find the specific building. After that, a quick metro ride to the Marche D’Aligre and then some oysters at the Baron Rouge. Back to the apartment for some downtime and then over to St.Germaine for a glass at Deux Magots and a bite at Avant Comptoir.

It was chilly this morning….headed out to Le Peloton for a coffee and the over to Notre Dame hoping to walk in without a reservation. Website only shows availabiliity for 3 days and all sold out, 10,000-15,0000 per day!!! When I go there, it was a crazy rat maze of people everywhere and given the temperature, I wasn’t going to stand around. So, off to Rue Mouffetard Saturday market for some oysters, and then I found an outstanding roast chicken place in the 5th that does Portuguese Piri Piri chicken, called Nossa, truly tasty and spicy! Then a quick bus over to the 12th for the March d’Aligre one of my favorites, with a follow up stop at Le Baron Rouge. Realtor across the street had an interesting looking unit that had 33 sq meters interior, a 30 sq meter terrace, a parking space and 12th floor with elevator. Could well be worth looking at. Headed over to Rue Montorgueil for dinner and settled on some Risotto at Rocher de Cancale. Always thought it was a tourist spot, but they were on the ball and the food was good.

Not too much to report today. Mainly some housekeeping for the apartment. Quite chilly out with temp in the 30s and off an on sunny/cloudy. Headed over to BHV to buy light bulbs to replace a strobing LED in the living room. Then, our new smart lock is being a little inconsistent, so made contact with the locksmith who will come over at some point. After that headed over to Ile St. Louis for a bit of lunch, delicious pumpkin soup some Escargot and small salad. Then started calling in at realty offices. Unlike the USA there is no centralized data base of things for sale, each agency represents their own units. I stopped in at three different places, looked at one small unit and have appointments on Tuesday to see a few others that look promising. The one I looked at was a definite no. Ile St. Louis would be good as it is very central and I have friends who live there. It is also considered very desirable with prices ranging from 14,000-40,000 per Sq Meter! I took the bus over the the Petit Palais, which has some art on display, but there was a line out the door and it was too cold for me to want to stand around, so will do that another time. Hotel La Marine was ‘exceptionally closed’ for an event, so that didn’t work either. Had such a fun time at the Avant Comptoir last night that I went back. A few small things and that did it for dinner, then to Deux Magots, which has just reopened after 2 months of remodeling. They had live music going on, so that was fun.

A smooth trip on the TGV to Paris from Lille, just over an hour. Then took a bus from Gare du Nord to near the apartment. All good with the apartment, and spend some time getting a few supplies and generally getting situated. Dinner at L’Avant Comptoir du Mer followed by a little more next dood at the Comptoir du Terre. Some guys from the south of France immediately adopted me on walking in the door and shared wine and general good humor. All in all an excellent evening. Weather is quite variable with occasional showers an dis generally chilly. By some miracle I have the heat working at the apartment so that is at least comfortable. Got some wash done and have basic supplies in.

A definite cold snap has hit, temperatures this morning were 38degrees! After finding a good coffee it was off the to the Tourist Info center to do the hour long bus tour of town. That was interesting a covered some areas that I hadn’t walked to. After some lunch I headed to the fine arts museum which is one of the largest in France. Nice collection with some Monets, Rubens, Goya and Delacroix paintings. Then to the city hall the ascend the tower. After that some down time and then a stroll around with a stop at a wine bar for some charcuterie for dinner.

Got an early start today and made the 9:11am train out of Bruges with about 4 minutes to spare. Got off at the Brussels Midi station and put my bags in a locker, then back on the train to the Central station. Did a walk around to the Grand Place and then found the famous statue of the boy peeing. From there headed to find some lunch, somewhat unsuccessfully but ended up walking back to the Midi station and grabbing a burger at a brasserie near the station. Brussels seemed like a modern city but largely lacking in charm. A 30 minute TGV ride brought me to Lille then a 10 minute walk to the hotel. A cold snap started last night and it got particularly noticeable in the afternoon and downright cold this evening. I eventually found a place that was happy to serve me dinner around 6:00pm and had a nice plate of duck breast. Will do a proper Lille exploration tomorrow.

Headed to one of the museums this morning, the Groenige museum, famous for Flemish art. It had quite a collection of interesting paintings, see below. Then managed to get a boat tour on one of the boats that goes around the city in the canals. This boat was electric and it took a little over a half hour for the tour. Very pleasant. Then found a Korean place that served and excellent Bimbimbap in a hot stone bowl. Thus fortified headed to the edge of town for a closer look at the windmills. Apparently, one is still in use, but it was not running today. Booked various trains etc for tomorrow’s trip to Lille. Good thing I knew better than to use the routing on SNCF as that would have taken over 6 hours. The good solution was local train to Brussels, 54 minutes, and then TGV to Lille, 34 minutes. I’m hoping I’ll have time for a quick walk around before getting the TGV. Being Monday, the crowds were noticeable lighter than yesterday. As evening hit, the temperature dropped significantly from a comfortable mid to high 60s to low 50s and chilly. Wasn’t able to find GF pizza but did find a nice bowl of risotto for dinner.

Had a solid day of touristing around Bruges. Started with the major climb up the Belfort tower, 366 steps, definitely got the blood flowing right away. Nice view from the top and an interesting Carillon mechanism. Then took the Rick Steves book and followed his recommended walk. That took most of the rest of the morning. Ended up at a nice little restaurant called moules et Poules, mussels and Chicken, for lunch. A nice half a rotisserie chicken and fries did the job. After that it was the hour long open bus tour of the town, which was interesting. Then after some downtime, realized that a couple of the museums would be closed tomorrow, so the only chance to see them would be today. Since I had bought a museum pass, I did a run through of the two that would be closed tomorrow. This is an interesting town and was a seaport before the access silted up. Eventually it became a tourist attraction and it does seem quite busy. Will see how it is on Monday.

Got an early start today with a quick taxi ride to the St. Pancras Eurostar station in London. Considering that yesterday complete fell apart with an old WWII bomb found on the tracks near Gare du Nord halting all trains to Paris, it was remarkably calm and efficient. The train to Brussels was full but it only takes about 2 hours, so not too bad. A quick walk over to another track and right onto the local train just in time for the doors to close. An hour later arrived in Bruges and took a local bus to about a block from the hotel. This town feels like an old medieval place with cobblestone streets, major squares and old buildings. Coming from London it actually seemed a little crowded heard with lots of people out and about. Locals assure me that it is actually slow right now! Checked into a Rick Steve’s recommended hotel a few blocks of the main square and out to find some lunch. Lots and lots of restaurants, cafes and Brasseries here. It’s all about Mussels, Burgers, Frites and Beer. Most of the restaurants have similar menus but do seem to take it seriously. Beautiful town and look forward to further explorations tomorrow, possibly and e-bike rental. Thinking about London, it is very easy to get around, and, there is a huge variety of foods, particularly of different ethnic types. It is very pricey, but I got off lightly using points for both my Airplane ticket and for my 4 night hotel stay. Would definitely like to come back and explore some more. Belgium is interesting because I’m told that Brussels is quite French, but here in Bruges it is very Dutch and you feel almost as if you are in Amsterdam.