Friday, November 26, 2010

Bondues

We visited many interesting places in and around Bondues, a small town in northern France between Lille and the Belgian border. One highlight was a visit to the city of Bruges in Belgium, a major trading center from the 12th to the 15th centuries. Below is just one of the many historic buildings, the Provinciaal Hof (Provincial Court):

The sun is shining in the photo above, but that was one of the few times that day! We took a canal tour, and also visited the Church of Our Lady. This church contains the statue "Madonna and Child," one of the few Michelangelo statues outside of Italy:

On another day we had cooking lessons at Les Toquées de la Cuisine in Lille (info in English):

Our cooking became part of our lunch in the restaurant upstairs.

Following lunch we walked around parts of downtown Lille. This is the Lille Opera House:

That day ended with a delightful dinner and cabaret show at Le Prestige Palace in Lille:

On another day we visited La Piscine museum in Roubaix, an art museum constructed in a former swimming pool:

The museum was popular that day! Perhaps because it was a rainy Saturday, and perhaps because they were having a special exhibition from the Musée d'Orsay in Paris of the drawings, photographs and sculptures of Edgar Degas (including the Little Dancer of Fourteen Years).

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1 comment:

Laura said...

Two comments: Did you know Marion used to work at that opera house you took a picture of? She was a greeter and usher or sorts, and got to see several operas on the nights she worked.

On the Degas exhibit that we saw, I just got to see a few more of his works in Copenhagen! Eliza and I visited the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, where they had several of his paintings of dancers. There was also another bronze cast of the little dancer, apparently there are several of them around the world.