Day 2 in Lille

Hard to believe that the second day with my parents has come and gone! Time really flies when you are having fun. Even my mom can't believe that it is Monday tomorrow.
Today we slept in a bit but woke up just in time to make it to church. We somehow managed to find an English speaking Anglican church, so we went there for Easter service. It was pretty nice! There were a lot of British people, but we also met a really nice American lady from Boston who had been living in Lille for 16 years. The service was pretty good and interesting too. Traditional hymns, call/response readings, pretty typical. The minister did an interesting bit for the kids where she related a giant chocolate Easter egg to the tomb of Christ and then smashed it with a hammer (which represented God's power). The kids went crazy over the chocolate egg, but they were happy when they got to eat it afterwards.

Mom and Dad at the front of the church

Dad and I in front

Church we saw after our service

After church, we made our way back to the hotel. On the way, I convinced my parents to stop in at a bakery for their first taste of French pastries and viennoiseries... we got pain au chocolat (my first since lent began) and a chocolate macaron. Both delicious. Afterward, we went on a nice run, the sun was out, and we discovered a really beautiful park with a little zoo and a citadel. Oh, and my Dad had peanut butter for the first time in 40 days (that's what he gave up for lent).

Peanut butter!

After we showered, we went for another walk downtown. We walked to a gorgeous Notre Dame cathedral, which was actually built in the 1800s but looked like it had been refurbished (maybe destroyed and rebuilt after the war??).

The front looked like it was having some work done, while the back looked older. It was great to walk through and there was even a short organ concert.
Afterwards, my camera died and we walked to visit the zoo that we ran by. It was free, and pretty cute, but we walked through quickly because we were pretty cold.
Afterwards, we wandered around looking for a restaurant. After checking out many different menus, we finally settled on a little brasserie/restaurant that also made its own beer and it turned out to be a great find. There was great beer, a great atmosphere, and really good food. There was a lot of variety too. A nice thing about French restaurants is that they let you linger over your food and won't bring the bill until you ask for it, so you can take as much time to sit at the table and visit as you want. We had a great evening.
Now we are just watching a movie and relaxing, because we are going to be up in good time tomorrow so that we can go to Vimy Ridge! Maybe we will even see my brother there.