Marche de Noel in Lille France

Saturday my friend, Birgit and I headed to Lille France for the day to explore and enjoy the Christmas Market (Marche de Noel). To read more about this great Christmas Market, click HERE

We took the train from Kortrijk Belgium for the 30 minute journey into France!  I just love the idea of being so close to so many countries here in Europe!  "Oh, I think I'll go to France today!"   Why Not???!!!

It was a perfect wintery day, with a festive chill in the air and fresh snow atop the more then 80 wooden chalets that lined Place Rihour in the centre of town.

 The chalets were decorated so cute with lights, gingerbread men and several Christmas scenes.

I, of course must have and eat immediately, a beignet!

Now we did take some time out to have a real meal.  This sign made it easy to decide what I wanted for lunch!

A nice pot of mussels cooked in white wine!

We enjoyed walking around and taking in this beautiful city.

But the views from the ferris wheel were spectacular!

I was loving the views......

....while Birgit was holding on for dear life!

Time to warm up with some Vin Chaud and enjoy the view.

I have entirely way to many pictures to show you for this post.  But here are a few of my favorites!

Ok, I'll stop.....but if you would like to see more pictures just click this "Where's Debbie" and then on the album "Marche de Noel"

It was a fantastic day!  But it's time to call it a day and head back to the train station.

Happy Holidays!

How Much Is Gas???

No, vehicle fuel is not $1.51 per gallon here in Belgium.....that's per liter!  And when you convert that, you're paying $6.04 per gallon!

Makes the price of gas in America not so bad after all!

Just thought I would share this with you.

Skiing in Belgium???

Belgians love to snow ski!  However, Belgium is not known for World Class ski slopes, heck, they don't even have any mountains!  Belgians travel all over Europe to enjoy their favorite past time to places like the Dolomites in Italy, the Alps in Switzerland, Tyrol in Austria and Tignes France.  In fact, we will be going to France for a ski holiday this upcoming February, so keep a look out for that story! 

But you know you just don't want to ski once a year, right?  So here in the Henegouwen Provence of Belgium they have "Ice Mountain"! 

How cool is this!!!??  No we didn't ski here (remember we're going to France!).  Stijn's brother, Dries, works here and provides snowboarding lessons down the 131 foot slope.

This place has skiing and snowboarding on real snow with 2 runs for beginners and advanced skiers.

We enjoyed a drink from the restaurant while watching people having fun on this indoor slope.  

There are no chair lifts here.  So how do they get back to the top? 

Hold on to that cable and take a ride to the top!

Don't forget to check out "Where's Debbie" for more pictures!

Watery wednesday - Strasbourg France

Stijn had taken me to the Alsasce Region of France as a birthday surprise in October 2009.  On our drive back to Belgium we made a stop in the beautiful city of Strasbourg to stroll the cobblestone streets between the storybook buildings of  half-timbered houses. The pretty medieval houses of the district date from the 16th and 17th centuries, and half-timbering is magnificently decorated.

Towers and footbridges situated at the end of 'Petite France' are the Ponts-Couverts, one of the many famous tourist attractions in all of Strasbourg. Comprising three 13th-century towers, these ancient fortified remains owe their name to the series of roofed, wooden footbridges

Strasbourg, in eastern France, is the seventh largest city in France.  Strasbourg is the ultimate European city. It has flavors of both France and Germany, and sits right on the border of the two countries. In fact, Strasbourg has often changed hands between the French and Germans over the centuries.

See some more beautiful "Watery" pictures by clicking here "Watery Wednesday"

St. Nicholas in Belgium

Prettige Feesten!   "Happy Holidays" from Belgium.

Yes, I am in Belgium now and today we celebrated the coming of St. Nicholas.  Belgium is such a great Country, that not only do they celebrate Christmas on December 25th, but on December 6th children wake up to gifts that St. Nicholas has left for them the night before.

There are some very close simularities between Santa Claus and St. Nicholas, but yet very different.  St. Nicholas rides a horse instead of a sleigh being pulled by 8 tiny reindeer.  His black helpers are called Zwarte Piet which is the Dutch name for the Moorish helpers, as opposed to the little elves who make the toys for Santa.  And St. Nicholas prefers to have a glass of wine left for him along with some carrots or turnips, and a sugar lump for the saint's horse.  Hmmm, makes cookies and milk sound a bit boring.

St. Nicholas and his Zwarte Piet assistants come in November by boat, train, or on horseback to get ready for his feast day, the 6th of December.

So today, little Ella, Stijn's niece, came decked in garland to grandma's to see what St. Nicholas had left for her the night before.

Our day was spent enjoying family, good food and watching Ella enjoying her gifts.

I wish all of you a Happy and Joyous Holiday Season wherever you may be!

I'm Still Alive and Well

Just a quick note to let you know that I am still alive and well!

I apologize for not keeping up on my posts and for not reading yours, but I have been busy trying to prepare for an 8 month long trip to Europe that I will be leaving for on Thursday evening (Dec 2). 

So a lot of packing, preparing, visiting friends and family and the doctors visits have kept me away from my blog.

I promise when the dust clears and I'm settled in Europe I will bring you some stories of my months to come in Europe of sunny days on the Algarve coast in Portugal, skiing in France and Christmas Markets in Belgium and Paris!

Happy Holidays!!

Enjoying Gatlinburg

During our house hunting in Tennessee a few weeks back, we did take one day to play tourists and enjoy some of what "Gatlinburg" has to offer.

One of the great things Gatlinburg has is a Trolley service (Gatlinburg Trolley information) The all day Trolley Pass can be purchased at all three Gatlinburg Welcome Centers, Gatlinburg City Hall and at the front desks of numerous Gatlinburg lodging companies.  We purchased ours at the Visitors Center where the parking is free and a ticket only costs $2.00 per person for all day!

First stop, breakfast!  There are so many places to have breakfast in this area and they all have the word "Pancake" on their signs.  With so many choices it was great that our realtor gave us a recommendation for "The Pancake Pantry".

Oh, I just had to have the Sweet Potato pancakes!!!!

No, I didn't eat them all!

We then headed over to a small ski lift in the middle of town to take the ride up a little mountain where we enjoyed the view of Gatlinburg and the Smokies.

Gatlinburg is a great place to just walk around and pop in and out of shops.  My favorite area for this was called "The Village".   Set in a quaint European village atmosphere with cobblestone paths and water fountains there are a collection of 27 unique boutiques, eateries, galleries and clothiers.

Even though it was just November 4, there were decorations throughout to let you know that Christmas is just around the corner!

 I do understand that the crowds can be crazy here in the summer and during the holidays. So we felt very relaxed and lucky to be here during this time of year.

If you would like to see some pictures, click here "Where's Debbie" and then click on the album "Enjoying Gatlinburg"

 

Gatlinburg on Dwellable

Enjoying Tennessee

Our trip to Tennessee a couple of weeks ago was for the purpose of exploring the idea of relocating from Las Vegas.  So I am not going to have a lot of touristy posts about Tennessee.  But I would like to share some of the sites we enjoyed while we were there.

First let me start with a picture of my FAVORITE bird.  The Cardinal!  He was enjoying the seed we put out for him as an early morning breakfast.

We discovered while driving around looking at houses that Tennessee has quite a few Flea Markets.  We enjoyed poking around this one on Hwy 66 in Sevierville.

I just loved all the quaint Churches in this area.

And the festive holiday decorations are everywhere!

And my absolute favorite was the "Quilt Trail" that they have in this neck of the woods.  I was lucky enough to see about three barns, each with a different quilt pattern painted on them.  But I was only able to get a picture of one.  Isn't this the coolest idea?

I just love coming across the unexpected, don't you?