Since it carries the name Bourse it suggests that this used to the the former stock exchange,…read morethough considering that were are now in France I would have thought that the Stock Exchange would have been located in Paris. However, what this place actually is is a market place, and when we wandered through here on Sunday discovered that all of the regional booksellers had descended upon the town to begin selling their wares. Basically you could find quite a number of second-hand French books as well as numerous posters and other things (such as records). There are also a number of shops around the outside that are basically regular shops, but if you are looking for a bargain then definitely step inside and have a bit of a look around.

A brilliant building to check out in the middle of Lille. Inside there is also a book market and…read moresome art works sold which is quite a wonderful use of space in the Old Stock Exchange!

It's known as the site that is close to where Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae wrote his famous poem…read more It is here that you'll see the Advanced Dressing Station bunkers along a bank of the Yser Canal. These types of medical stations were established very close to the front line. The original one where he tended to the wounded was a roughly made dugout shelter that had a roof covered with wooden boards. The ones that you see today are the reinforced concrete dressing stations built into the bank around 1917. The cemetery was named after the Essex Regiment in memory of the very first soldiers to be buried here from the Commonwealth. There are military cemeteries peppered throughout this region. Many that are buried in these cemeteries are still unknown. Recovery of the dead was difficult due to constant artillery bombardment and the initial gas attack during the Second Battle of Ypres. You'll learn more about that at In Flanders Fields Museum. This was our final stop of the tour. It put everything that we saw that day into perspective. The John McCrae Memorial Site, Monument to the 49th West Riding Division, and the Stone of Remembrance are prominent along with all the beautifully manicured garden of headstones. In the midst of it all are wild poppies that sprout up in the Fields around it. You can definitely see and understand how it all inspired a Canadian infantry field surgeon to write such a beautiful poem after one of his closest friends was killed in battle. I'll leave you with this famous poem. In Flanders Fields by John McCrae In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved, and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, through poppies grow In Flanders fields.

A small cemetery by World War I standards, but the medical facilities behind it on the Yser Canal,…read morethe British Advanced Dressing Station (ADS), are its most unusual feature. A line of crude, cold bunkers faces away from the canal and the line of advance of the 1915 German Army. It is difficult to imagine doctors working in near-caves like these - but no more difficult than imagining a civilization that would descend to the lunacy of the Western Front. The ADS saw its worst action in the Second Battle of Ypres, on April 23rd, 1915, when the German Army attacked for the first time under a cloud of poison gas.

Lille is a visually spectacular city, and the Grand Place, for me, was the icing on the cake. To…read morejust sit in this square and marvel at the buildings and soak in the atmosphere is really quite a wonderful thing to do. It's a wonderful place to sit in the sun, and there's a number of bars and eateries in the area too, well worth checking out.