Count Baldwin IV of Flanders Game: The Lille, France Touring Game Created by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Count Baldwin IV of Flanders Game:  The Lille, France Touring Game Created by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Introduction:

The City of Lille (France) is known as the Capital of Flanders, which has Flemish speakers in both France and Belgium.  Lille is in both France and Belgium.  Lille is in the region of France called the Nord – Pas de Calais.

History:

The Flemish Count Baldwin IV (Baudoin le Barbu in French or Baudewijn met de Bard in Flemish – born c. 980 – May 30, 1035).  Baldwin IV notably defeated the Holy Roman Emperor Henry II and won the following territories for France:

-Valenciennes (France)

-Ghent (Belgium)

-Zeeland (Netherlands)

Industries:

Today, the Lille-Tourcoing-Roubaix-Villeneuve d’Ascq conurbation produces:

-fruit juices

-freeze-dried coffee

-instant foods

-soybean and cottonseed oil

There are also service industries in Lille linked to trade with the above industries:

-banking

-insurance

-logistics (rail, port, and highway)

How to Get to Lille from Paris, France

Lille is about 1 hour away from Paris by Eurostar TGV, connecting London (UK) and Brussels (Belgium), which makes a weekend trip from Paris a fun option for shopping, dining, and sightseeing.

Festivals in Lille

Check out websites for Lille for tourism information.

Two festivals that might interest tourists visiting Lille for the first time include:

-“Festival Bal” – a Flemish and Belgian-Flemish beer festival

-Christmas Market – runs from the end of November to the end of December.  The Christmas Market sells nativity figurines, Christmas decorations, and Christmas foods

The various websites have maps and city guides you can download.

Tours

The City of Lille is adding tours of breweries, walking tours, and battlefield tours to its website.

One tour that may be of interest to Americans of English and Australian descent is a tour of the Fromelles Battlefield. 

The Germans defeated British and Australian troops on July 19 and July 20, 1916 at Fromelles.  The battleground here did not have trenches.  It used a “breastwork” or temporary fortification instead of trenches.

Notable Flemish Cuisine and Beer

-Carbonnade flamande – Flemish beef and vegetables stewed in beer

-Belgian fish and chips (fries) dunked in mayonnaise

-Belgian-Flemish beer – I tasted one of my favorite Belgian-Flemish beers in Arras (France).  It is called Affligem (Afflighem) and is from the Flemish province of Brabant outside Brussels, Belgium. 

Final Note:

Lille can be a weekend trip from Paris or a detour on the way to Brussels, Belgium on the Eurostar TGV (speed train).

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Visiting Pierrefonds and Compiegne: Fortress Towns in the Retz and Compiegne Forests North of Paris by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Visiting Pierrefonds and Compiègne (France):  Fortress Towns North of Paris by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

On another cold, winter weekend in Paris, my husband Laurent and I drove north to the imposing fortress on the Oise River named Pierrefonds.

Pierrefonds is lit up dramatically at night, but there is not much to visit inside the Château.

The Château at Pierrefonds reminds me of Barbara Tuchman’s book entitled The Proud Tower.  The Tower in the book is medieval and watches over human wars and corruption and loses a few stones here and there, but remains strong due to its solid stone construction – what the French call “vielles pierres – “old stones.”

We drove through the Fôret de Retz and the Fôret de Compiègne for an hour to arrive at Pierrefonds to take photos.

There has always been a château on the Pierrefonds site since the 12^th century.  It is a fortress not a luxury château.  The main purpose of the Château at Pierrefonds is to serve as a barrier against invasion on the Oise River.

To finish the day off, we went to the town of Compiègne to do grocery shopping and visit the town where my husband Laurent did his engineering studies in computer science (hardware, software, and communications and electrical systems between the two).

Compiègne is famous as the place where Louis XVI met Marie-Antoinette in 1770.  She was very beautiful; Louis XVI was said to be “paralyzed with timidity” when he met his Austrian bride-to-be.

Both cities have a spooky air to them when you drive through the forests with hoar frost hanging off of them.

Both of these “vielles pierres” towns might not be on the agenda for a first or second trip to France, but maybe a third.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Langeais and Villandry: Chateaux Hopping in France's Loire Valley with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Langeais and Villandry:  Châteaux Hopping in France’s Loire Valley with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

My husband Laurent and I went to the Loire Valley to do some shopping on one winter weekend as we left Paris for a car trip.

The Loire Valley Château at Langeais beckoned us.  The tall, central dungeon, whose ruins are part of the Château, was built in the 10^th century, making it one of the most ancient dungeons in France. 

The tall dungeon was the most secure place in a castle.  Prisoners, the food stores for 5 years or more, and the women and children were kept in the dungeon in wartime at different levels of the dungeon tower.

Louis XI built the Château between 1465 and 1469 to keep the wily Bretons from coming up the Loire River from Nantes to the Touraine where Langeais is located.  It almost sounds like Langeais was a Hadrian’s Wall to keep the wily Scots from descending down into England.

The Loire River by Langeais Château was not always full of sand bars like it is today.

A royal marriage between Anne de Bretagne and Charles VIII stamped out any future Breton invasions.  Brittany became part of France after this marriage.

Unlike other châteaux, Langeais has many tapestries and many pieces of furniture to give you an idea of how life was lived in the 15^th century in a royal household.

My favorite artworks were the tapestries from Flanders and the Mille Fleurs or “Thousand Flowers” tapestries.  The tapestries served as insulation in damp châteaux.

Our next stop was the Château at Villandry, famous for its reconstruction of a 16^th century French garden.  There are many terraces and canals with hedges shaped into forms symbolizing love.

There was also a vegetable garden whose plants are arranged in a cross-pattern developed in a pre-Columbian monastery gardens similar to those in blueprints for the St. Gall Monastery in Switzerland.

I liked the canal system at Villandry whose different gardens occupy different levels around the Château grounds.

We left the Château and ate cheese and mushroom pizza in Vielle Tours downtown with its half-timbered buildings.

I loved both Langeais and Villandry for being close enough to Paris that you could drive there or take the train or TGV (Speed Train) for a short weekend visit.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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La Perouse the Explorer Cruise Idea Suggested by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

La Pérouse the Explorer Cruise Idea Suggested by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

As a follow-up to the La Pérouse the Explorer Game I developed on this Savvy Mom Ruth Paget website, I would like to suggest a cruise for the American portions of La Perouse’s expeditions for the whaling and fur trades for the following ports-of-call:

-Alaska – Lituya Bay in Southeastern Alaska

-California – Monterey Bay with visits to the Presidio of Monterey Fortress - (modern-day Defense Language Institute Headquarters) and the Carmel Mission (San Carlos Borromeo).

I cleaned the bronze plaque at the Carmel Mission commemorating La Pérouse’s mission and stops around the Pacific along with my daughter Florence and husband Laurent on behalf of the Alliance Française of the Monterey Peninsula as community service.  It was completely black at the time and now it is blue, but legible.  It is nice for souvenir photo ops.

-Hawaii (Maui)

La Pérouse was the first European explorer on the island of Maui.

The best chocolate and macademia nut candies are from this island.

-Samoa

Samoa is a US territory like Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.  It is not a state, but it is the US located in the Western Pacific area called Polynesia.  There is an American Polynesia and a French Polynesia.

Samoa has many places of natural beauty that could be viewed by glass bottom boat, helicopter, or SUV tours on paved paths through rainforest terrain.

Why tours in an air-conditioned SUV on paved paths?

Snakes, biting insects, spiders, and animal feces falling from treetop dwelling animals like birds and monkeys are not only disgusting, but hazardous to your health in most cases.

These are the sites of natural beauty to see in Samoa:

-coral reefs

-rainforests

-waterfalls

There are several cruise lines that might be interested in offering La Pérouse the Explorer Cruises, especially for fall and early winter cruises:

-Princess Cruises

-Alaska Cruises

-Holland America

-Cunard Cruise Lines

-Norwegian Cruise Lines

-Viking Cruise Lines

-Carnival Cruise Lines

These cruise lines already have service set up in places like San Diego, Los Angeles, and Santa Barbara in California to allow cruise passengers to eat, buy souvenirs, and sleep on the way to a first stop in Monterey Bay, California.

The cruise I have suggested here is a little different from cruises that people already take in the Pacific, but travel agents might be able to set this up for university alumni groups or other organizations along with tour guides and tour buses on shore.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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