Waffles and fries and beer, oh my!

That's right folks after another six of weeks of teaching, France has granted me two weeks of vacation. I know your jealousy might be starting to really brew right about now, but don't be envious come out here and join the fun instead! While I didn't plan this vacation any earlier than the others, I had a really good idea of where I wanted to go and the means to do so.  After trying to swallow Barb's passing, I decided to do the only thing I knew I could to make her proud, live life to the fullest while drinking a good tasty beer and laughing as much as possible along the way with good genuine friends. So, Thursday morning I left for Belgium in my friend Max's little blue Peugeot, which I like to call Smirfette cheersing to Barb along the way. 

Packed with 3 maps (one of France, and 2 detailing the North and South of tiny Belgium separately) and some essential food items to keep us nourished along the way and our wallets happy, we left from Montbeliard with a rawly drawn line penciling our way up to Belgium through Epinal, Metz, Nancy and Luxembourg.  Getting out of the Franche-comte seemed to take forever, but stocked with music and all the time in the world, we slowly but surely made our way up through North-western France into Luxembourg, passing the Alsace and Lorraine regions along the way.  My immediate reaction of Northern France was the appearance of brick buildings. I haven't seen bricks in the longest time and it was so gratifying to see these friendly old burnt-red blocks adorning the buildings along the highway. 

Our first stop was Chimay, the little town where Chimay Triple Blue, Red and White are made. Famous for its monastery where the beer has been brewed for centuries, we stopped over to go find ourselves some monks. Within the tranquil monastery walls, we found no monks, but I did get a good sense of what a monastery is like. I admit, I had some pre-expectations that weren't fulfilled, but I was intent on admiring the simple calm essence of the monastery.  While we didn't get to see any of the beer making process, we did stop by the Chimay brasserie down the street, which is a bit more commercial, but provides all the products the monastery produces. We bought ourselves a chunk of cheese and a type of beer they only sell on tap there at the brasserie.  During our "degustation" we also started a friendly conversation with two Americans and a Brit on a beer tour of Belgium. 

We made it to Luxembourg by sunset and the tiny little commerce-centered city/country put us on a little chase, driving in circles trying to figure out how the hell to get out and into Belgium. Let's just say that as soon as we hit Luxembourg all logical signs seemed to disappear. Signs pointing to "other directions" would also be pointing to the airport and train station, which on the map were located in three distinctly different directions. I guess that's what happens in tiny little countries. 

Deciding to rest in southern Belgium, before making it up to Tournai, we started looking for a hotel. We must have crossed through Belgium, Luxembourg and France between 4-8 times to finally find a decently priced hotel. We passed about 5 I would say that were unjustifiably expensive. In horrible, distant locations these hotels/motels were priced between 70 and 90 euros most not even including an additionally priced 13 euro breakfast. With the advice of one concierge, we decided to head back to the French border to a Mister Bed to recharge for our continuing journey. Upon arrival, the price was right so we parked and unloaded, famished and ready to cook up some of the spaghetti we bought for the journey.

Max, a more than seasoned traveler, brought along his little gas cooker and a pot, however earlier in the day we realized we forgot to buy utensils. This didn't seem to cause much trouble while assembling sandwiches of comte and sausage, but cooking spaghetti is a different story. By nine the supermarket behind the hotel was closed and the reception had no helpful tools to pocket to help our endeavor.  Instead we improvised, using my toothbrush holder to stir the pasta to keep it from sticking. Plates were unnecessary, why not eat straight from the pot. The problem was what to eat the spaghetti with. While I had no problem recreating an image of my first time eating spaghetti as a baby, I was still tempted to try and rig up a way of eating this pasta without my hands. Famished, we had already started gorging ourselves on some more cheese and sausage, almost like the scene right out of "Two for the Road," and while the idea of eating the spaghetti with our toothbrushes could work, mixing the taste of mint and tomato sauce didn't seem too appetizing.

Suddenly a light bulb hit as a stared at the plastic hangers conveniently fixed to a rod above the bed. Sure plastic chop sticks could work. At the mention of the idea, Max was immediately breaking the hangers with a sarcastic "oops" to follow. Instead of breaking more than one so we each had two, one nicely bevelled plastic rod was all we needed to daintily scoop up some angel hair spaghetti into our salivating mouths. Mission complete, dinner a success followed by a desert of apples and clementines. 

The following day we made our way back into Belgium and up to Tournai, where we would sleep over at Max's friend's house. I have to admit, the Belgian countryside doesn't appeal to me as much as France's. I say this after seeing the view from both the highway and the country roads.  In Tournai, the whole brick scheme was taken a bit too far. The buildings were all brick one after the other, almost creating a factory like image, but this architecture motif definitely changed as we headed further North in our travels. From Tournai, each day we, me, Max, Virginie, Marie (Virginie's roomate) and Marie's boyfriend, Antoine would travel to a neighboring city. The great thing about tiny Belgium is that no city is really much more than two hours from the next.  

Our first trip was to Bruges, which is now being beautifully depicted in the film "In Bruges," which I have yet to see, but look forward to. We got our first taste of Belgian frites (fries) there, as well as our first beers in a proper Belgian brasserie.  The following day we made our way to the North Sea, a must have stop, since I was torn between going south to the beaches or up to Belgium for my vacation. While it was too cold to go for a dip, I did manage to fall on my touckas while walking back on the jetty towards shore. No worries, we caught a great sunset and the guitar I was shlepping had no damage, my wet slightly bruised bum was the only thing to suffer.  The way home was a chase for time, trying to find a supermarket before they all closed and getting a bit lost in the process. Not too much stress for me as I sort of zonked out in the back.

At the supermarket we stocked up on some pizza and various Belgian beers for a soiree chez Virginie and I also picked up my two souvenir glasses displaying the Grimbergen logo (a favorite beer of mine). Ok I know you're thinking, Lindsay don't buy souvenirs at a grocery store, but the price was right and that just doubled my pleasure!  Back at Virginie's we had a swimmingly fun evening of guitar playing, juggling and marker wars. 

Sunday morning, as promised, I made a large stack of "American" pancakes for my new Frenchy friends. While I did flip one onto the ground and the stack warming in the oven did get too crispy for my liking, the recipe turned out well and stomachs were quite full and taste buds happy in the end.  Best part was Virginie asking me if Americans ate this for breakfast every morning. Misinterpreting the question, I responded "oui", quickly correcting myself to include "oh no just on the weekends, but usually also with sausage or bacon and loads of butter and syrup." Our pancakes were adorned with Nutella and jelly and the last two were augmented with a touch of fleur d'orangeur, a great little extract usually used in galettes, that actually works really well with pancakes. Definitely bringing that melange home.  

After some of our fullness wore off, Max, Virginie et I headed out to tour Brussels. I really enjoyed Brussels and wish we could have stayed for the evening to faire la fete (party). We didn't really have an agenda, but still caught some main sites like the Manneken Pis featuring a little statue of a boy peeing. I think my favorite was coming across a little pub as we were searching for a good destination to taste a beer. The pub, Au Bon Vieux Temps (Of the good old times) led down a tiny narrow alley into a pub dating back to the 1600's. Inside it was dark, wood-paneled and smoky, with colored refracted light streaming through the stained-glassed windows. Quite adverse to smoke, initially Virginie wasn't too keen, but with a bit of peer pressure from Max and the awesome atmosphere, we all sat down for one more beer before leaving the city to head back to Tournai.

Our last Belgian stop was in Liege, a city I have to say I didn't love to much. It was a bit run down and a lot was under construction. We tried to hit some main sites, but weren't too impressed and after some sandwiches and a quick pick me up at a cafe, we headed out. I was very keen on stopping at a 12th century chateau in Bouillon, which we opted to pass on the way up due to lack of time and lack of clear sky. Unfortunately, with our faulty French map, which was a bit outdated, we missed our exit, tant pis.  After a bit more of faulty directions from our trusty map, we finally made it back to La France though, quite content with our simple, easy going, down to earth road trip. 

Please check out the slide show I posted, as well. I included a lot of captions to fill in some quirky details from each excursion.