29: Novembre
November is almost up, so I figured a general updates post was in order. A couple weeks ago Elijah, fellow Davidson graduate and TAPIF assistant in Dunkirk, came into Lille for a night to hang out with us. We toured the city, and stopped in to check out Vieux Lille’s church Eglise Saint André, which I bike by almost every day. It has a cool look–awesome limestone façade, brick walls, discordant belltower. I’m just now realizing that it’s probably the namesake for Rue Saint André, which is right next to us and goes south through the Vieux Lille market, past our new apartment, and takes us to the centre ville. The church, where General Charles de Gaulle was baptized (the savior of France and founder of the Vth Republic was born just around the corner from us!), is my Vieux Lille ‘landmark’–the bell tower tells me how far away I am from home. Anyway, I hadn’t been inside yet, and it was awesome
That weekend, Blaire and I hit the ville. French towns go all out on Xmas decorations, so despite some intense rain the centre ville was magical:
We finally stopped into this cool market we keep seeing within the courtyard of a beautiful building just off the main place. («La Vieille Bourse» “The old stockmarket/exchange) Although a lot of merchandise was covered because of the rain, there were awesome antiques and junk and posters in incredible variety:
Then we stepped into the Furet du Nord ("Ferret of the North”), a famously huge bookstore she’s been wanting to explore:
On the way back home to Vieux Lille, we walked through some beautiful streets: 
rue de la monnaie (above), where we are moving, turns into rue Saint André (below), where the Sunday market is…
and the Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-la-Treille was especially awesome at night (we are gunna live a block away from this cathedral).
UPDATE: see next blog post (30) for info about the cathedral
That Sunday we went to a Salon de Vins. Basically wine producers from across the country come to a big venue (Lille’s Grand Palais) and set up booths (color-coded by region) where people can taste and buy. It was awesome–we spent hours tasting free wine, and got bottles of our favorite three
Blaire and I have been going to a writing group with / getting to know a group of TAPIF assistants, so we invited them (and any guests) over for a Thanksgiving dinner at our place (when we move we’ll lose the fully equipped kitchen). I had to go to a training day (they don’t seem to understand the whole Thanksgiving thing in France), so was pretty useless while Blaire arranged everything and made green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, lentils, and homemade pumpkin pie. When I got home I threw together an easy pumpkin soup appetizer and some prebought turkey & turkey cordon bleu. People brought bread & cheese, lots of wine, and some herbal goodies. It was about a dozen people, mostly Americans but also a Canadian, an Indian girl, and a French boyfriend–(it was their first American Thanksgivings!). All in all, a great first experience hosting Thanksgiving dinner.
Finally, this past weekend we went into Paris to see a symphony concert. In (I assume) an effort to remain relevant, orchestras have started putting on more shows where they play live music to popular shows and movies like Harry Potter. As a kid, Blaire loved an anime show called Sailor Moon (I watched it but not extensively), so she got us tickets to a Sailor Moon Symphony at the Palais de Congrès near the Arc de Triomphe. Our room had an amazing view 
The next day we visited my friend Charlie in the suburb Maisons Alfort 
Her cat, James Bond Cat, was in trouble for peeing on the bed
