Win Eurostar Tickets to Lille, France
Sep 13th, 2009 by admin
[ANNOUNCEMENT: 1 October 2009 - and the winner is Dan from Food Urchin! Well done Dan. We Are Social will be in touch about the details.]
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Eurostar recently invited a small group of food bloggers on a culinary day trip to Lille, France as part of their Little Break, Big Difference campaign. The idea is that even just a day away, to either Lille, Brussels or Paris, can make all the difference. Their website is full of ideas for things to do, related to food, art, music, fashion, architecture and so on. My little break certainly made a big difference to me. Not only did I return to France for the first time in eight years, I had an excellent day out sampling local food and drink in Lille and the trip inspired me to go travelling more regularly. I’ve subsequently come up with a travel plan for the next five years, with 25 food & travel destinations to cover.
So now it could be your turn to have a little break in Lille!
I have two Eurostar tickets to give away to one lucky reader, courtesy of We Are Social, the people behind the Little Break campaign. All you have to do is leave a comment telling me how a little break to Lille would make a big difference to you.
Terms & Conditions:
- This competition is available to UK participants only, travelling from London to Lille (not Lille to London)
- Entrants must make their own way to and from St Pancras train station
- Comments must be up on World Foodie Guide before midnight (British Summer Time) Wednesday 30 September in order to be eligible for the competition
- The winner will be able to travel any time during the day and for any period of time until the end of November (subject to availability). If you want to go for longer than a day trip, that’s fine too (the return time doesn’t have to be on the same day as the departure time)
- In the interests of fairness, the winning entry will be picked by We Are Social and the winner will be informed by email (so please leave a proper name and email address, which I can forward to We Are Social)
Good luck to everyone!
I would love to win tickets to Lille! Not only would I be able to visit numerous patisseries and chocolate shops but I would be able to treat my man to steak frites (which is not usually allowed on noredmeat.com! That’s a massive difference for him!
A little break to Lille would make a big difference to me because:-
A) I’ve never been to Lille.
B) I’ll get another chance to practice my attrocious French on the locals “Ques quil ya dans le panier?” *Gallic Shrug*
C) (Possibly the most important point of the lot)…. I get to stuff myself silly with fantastic chocolates, cakes and food.
D) It’s the run up to Christmas, I should be able to pick up some unusual presents for friends and family. (French socks for all!!!!)
E) Being from Essex, I am ‘the’ perfect ambassador to represent the UK in Lille. (Errr…For reasons that I won’t go into here, but I am. Ok?)
F) I never win anything. *puppy dog eyes*
L) I’m so exhausted, and need a little break so badly, I’ve actually forgotten my alphabet…. this should be point ‘G’ and not ‘L’.
G) Alphabet back on track, I need the mental stimulation that only a trip to Lille can provide – Ive been hunting for the ‘classic’ French person for some time, (Stripy t-shirt, beret, onions around neck, possibly on a bike) In my previous travels I have never encountered this and need further trips to France to de-bunk the myth. (Although, years ago in Paris very early one morning every Parisian I encountered had a baguette under one arm. and was walking a poodle with the other….really!).
H) Just give me the tickets to Lille, or I’ll come back and write more rubbish lists on your blog.
Au revoir et bonne chance mes collegues blogueurs
(See – told you I need to practice my French, ideally in Lille.)
I suffer from a rare genetic brain condition which means that I cannot go longer than 90 days without a fix of French fresh air, rillettes, cote de boeuf, shoulder shrugging and smelly cheese. Time is running out for me…I need to get to Lille…
Ok… setting the scene, start the tiny violin.
I would love to go back to Lille and have lunch in a gorgeous bistro and dinner in a wonderful little restaurant. Wander the cute streets, munch on a macaron, sup coffee on the promenade.
I know I’ve been already BUT I haven’t been anywhere else this year, I’ve not had a holiday longer than 5 days in 3 years, and that was a trip to a wedding. I’m also not working at the moment (save trying to make the stall work which is a financial struggle), so, please, please, please, allow me another little break. Otherwise I am not going anywhere for a while.
It would be the best pick-me-up surprise if my husband and I won those tickets to Lille. I could do with some of that French joie de vivre! We hardly see each other due to work commitments that are geographically far apart, so a weekend of quality time together enjoying authentic local French cuisine, shopping and sightseeing would be fantastic! We’ve done this a few times in Paris, but it sounds like Lille is *the* next place to be!
I would love to win a trip to Lille as it’s my birthday tomorrow and I have wanted to go on a gastronomic weekend to France for ages. The opportunity to sample some authentic French cuisine would not be wasted who know’s I might be able to find a hidden gem or two – it would also give me the chance to stock up on some ingredients for the store cupboard. Besides all the blogger’s reviews looked so good that it simply unfair not to let me go !
I wish you could all win! Everyone deserves a little break. I feel a bit tearful from some of your comments…
Helen Yuet Ling
‘Les gens du Nord ont dans leur coeur le soleil qu’ils n’ont pas dehors’ – This song written by Enrico Macias describes the atmosphere that you get the first time you go to Lille and you meet people from there.
And they would be the best thing to start my Little Break with: meeting open-minded and dedicated people to bring me the sun I miss every day in the UK.
I never learn more about a city than enjoying it the way people do everyday: wandering around, pushing doors of stores and restaurants and say Hi to people willing to tell you more about their city. That’s what a Little Break is all about: getting away from routine and getting into that bubble of happiness and well-being that only a trip away will make the difference.
T make the difference is why I need a little break: Every morning and every evening, we share the same tube, the same train, never saying a word to each other, getting ready for the chaotic humdrum of our jobs. But when the time comes to leave that routine behind, my minds geared to enjoy the ‘abroad’ experience and Lille is the perfect place for it. Wonderful people, great food that only the North of France has the true secret of: Carbonate Flamande, Waterzoï, very tasty cheeses as Maroilles and of course, amazing beers.
This Little Break will transport me out of this world where the time stops and the earth stands still, where nothing else can really matter anymore but enjoying this parenthesis of happiness and pleasure.
So, yes to a Little Break that will make a big difference to my current life!
A big difference because..
if I don’t get something planned for the wife’s weekend, she’s gonna make me work extra hours to earn more money to spend on more food.
I would love a trip to Lille, because I love cooking and eating. I have only read about French cuisine but not understand it before. Having spent one year in the UK studying, it is a pity that I have not been to Lille yet. Therefore, this poor student would really really love to have a chance to go Lille please! If I get these tickets, I would bring my best friend to go on this discovery trail with me.
Why me?
I’ve never been to Lille.
My names not Dan.
But you can spell Dan from part of my name.
Let me go please I haven’t been out of the UK since Jan 2008
Linda aka Dan Li
Jackie Dyer Reply:
September 13th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
@goodshoeday, You are so funny!
I went to Lille as a student for a day out in my friend’s Mini Metro (years ago). It broke down so we never really got to see Lille. It was a bit of a nightmare in fact. I fancy patisseries, boulangeries, boucheries, charcuteries…. I guess they have all that! And then there’s the winematching! Would love to share with everyone but clearly have an act to follow.
Hello!
I’d love a trip to Lille! Since I set up my website Domestic Sluttery at the start of the year, I haven’t been on holiday at all. In fact, I’ve planned no less than FOUR holidays (including event buying tickets to Parma) but work has got in the way. Such is the trouble with being freelance.
My best mate and I need a break, we’ve been working hard on our respective businesses for the last year now (I’m a web editor and freelance writer, she’s an eco-trend spotter) and we damn well deserve a holiday. It’s my 27th birthday soon and I’m getting itchy feet – want to spend my time doing more things other than just working. Although that’s fun most of the time too
I’d be very happy to win a trip away, but I’d be even happier if I could surprise my best mate by taking her away for the day. She really deserves it.
I would love to win a trip to Lille as I have never been there before and it would be great to explore the city after reading so many reports on it from all the different blogs. I would get to practice my bad (but getting better) French on unsuspecting locals. I would also stock up on wine, cheese, bread and of course the famous French pastries. What’s more as an occasional Eurostar traveller travelling Leisure Select would let me try out “the pointy end” of the train and experiment with doing a day trip rather than a weekend away.
why lise should get the tix:
lise has never been to lille.
lise hasn’t had decent french food in far too long. paris was…….3 years ago?
lise got married last dec and STILL hasn’t gone on a honeymoon cos too broke.
did i mention lise loves to eat?
and that lise loves macaroons and pastries and cakes.
lise needs to feel that europe is worth staying on in uk for.
lise has never been on a eurostar train.
Just a break from nappies and puking for a day would seem like a little piece of heaven… !
Hello,
I would love the chance to have a ‘wee’ break away from London, which can be at times (especially during the run up to Christmas in the resto business) quite a stressful place. I am a huge fan of taking the Eurostar, it is way better than taking a plane, better for the environment and also way more relaxing! I have never been to Lille, and would love to check it out.
Thank you,
Caitlin
Caitlin
I would love to go to Lille but for reasons which are tinged by sadness. I used to have a pen pal you see, called Pascal Ananas who came from there. We first started writing to each other when we were school boys. I would help him with his English and he would help me with my French. Without Pascal’s tuition, I would never have attained my GSCE (grade F) although I think I am partly to blame for getting Pascal kicked out of school. He never did get his baccalauréat. Nevertheless, we remained good friends, carrying on our correspondence. Those letters provided great solace during our teenage years and I firmly believe that our brief spells in prison would have been infinitely boring without them. I will never forget the summer of ‘96 when I finally went to visit him and we drove down to the Côte d’Azur in a stolen Citroën 2CV. We spent a glorious month down there, courtesy of my father’s credit card. Pascal was one of life’s natural bon viveurs and could certainly attract the ladies despite having one leg 3 inches shorter than the other. Food, wine, women, we had the time of our lives! Our parents finally caught up with us though and once we were flown back to our respective homes, we were banned from ever writing to each other. As I never heard from him again and with time and life moving on, Pascal soon became a distant memory.
I then received a letter in the post nearly 5 years ago to the day. It was from someone called Claudette du Boise, a transsexual who claimed to be Pascal’s lover. She/He had some terrible news. Pascal had died, having choked on an escargot. Apparently he had taken on a wager to eat five hundred in 10 minutes – it was the 436th that got him. I cried my heart out that day, he was like a brother to me. And for that reason I would like to visit his grave which I believe is in a cemetery on the outskirts of Lille and place a single red rose on his tombstone.
Pascal, vous étiez mon ami, compagnon, amoureux.
My name’s not Dan (although Fran does rhyme). I don’t need to lay any flowers on pen pal graves, treat my partner, practice my terrible French or anything like that.
But I REALLY need to go to Lille because I have just returned from France and, as is tradition in my office to bring back a pack of biscuits from holidays, I have brought a pack of Les Génoises Fourréees which are like a raspberry Jaffa Cake. Herein lies the problem. The Jaffa Cake is technically NOT a biscuit and is infact a cake so it is all kicking off here big style.
Please help me resolve this massive issue so I can return with a pack of biscuits tout suite.
Merci bucket.
I am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice. I have been known to remodel train stations on my lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the area of heat retention. I translate ethnic slurs for Cuban refugees, I write award-winning operas, I manage time efficiently.
Occasionally, I tread water for three days in a row. I can pilot bicycles up severe inclines with unflagging speed, and I cook Thirty-Minute Brownies in twenty minutes. I am an expert in stucco, a veteran in love, and an outlaw in Peru.
Using only a hoe and a large glass of water, I once single-handedly defended a small village in the Amazon Basin from a horde of ferocious army ants. I play bluegrass cello, I was scouted by the Strictly Come Dancing, I am the subject of numerous documentaries. When I’m bored, I build large suspension bridges in my yard. I enjoy urban hang gliding.
I am an abstract artist, a concrete analyst, and a ruthless bookie. Critics worldwide swoon over my original line of corduroy evening wear. I don’t perspire. I am a private citizen, yet I receive fan mail.
My deft floral arrangements have earned me fame in international botany circles. Children trust me. I can hurl tennis rackets at small moving objects with deadly accuracy. I once read Paradise Lost, Moby Dick, and David Copperfield in one day and still had time to refurbish an entire dining room that evening. I have performed several covert operations with the MI6.
I sleep once a week; when I do sleep, I sleep in a chair. While on vacation in Canada, I successfully negotiated with a group of terrorists who had seized a small bakery. I balance, I weave, I dodge, I frolic, and my bills are all paid.
On weekends, to let off steam, I participate in full-contact origami. Years ago I discovered the meaning of life but forgot to write it down. I have made extraordinary four course meals using only a mouli and a toaster oven. I breed prize-winning clams. I have won bullfights in San Juan, cliff-diving competitions in Sri Lanka, and spelling bees at the Kremlin.
I have played Hamlet, I have performed open-heart surgery, and I have spoken with Elvis.
But I have not yet gone to Lillie.
Wild Boar Reply:
September 14th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
@Karen,
those damned army ants are indeed pesky!
Hi, my name is Yinnie and i would LOVE to visit Lille because
-I’ve never been to lille and after seeing your post, I really want to go, it looks so quaint and i LOVE quaint towns.
-The eurostar is so expensive for a poor student such as myself, and it would be quite an experiance to travel via eurostar
-who the hell doesn’t want free tickets? =D
- I like to eat alot, Im not picky with my food hence, will not make trouble for the french people. I LOVEEEE ESCARGOTS. =D
-I would make the most of the trip, like any student would *cough*getincrediblyandutterlydrunk*cough* so you know that i would have a good time. =D
I would love to go to Lille with Eurostar. The train journey is bliss avoiding both the hassle and carbon of air travel. A few green hours later, and Lille awaits, a French city replete in regional cooking (with a Flemish vibe). It’s a breath of cultural fresh air – a little break that makes a huge difference.
Good luck everyone! May the best comment win…
Helen Yuet Ling
It has been a lifetime dream of mine to eat every sweet in the window of Patisserie Meert. A little break to Lille would make a big difference in my waistline.
hi,i would love mre than anything else in the world to win these tickets.it has been me and my mums dream for so long.our favourite place has always been france since the first time we went there when i was a child.a few yrs ago my mum booked us a pair of euro star tickets,but unforutnetly i was taken ill and was taken to hosptial where i had to stay getting the treatment i needed for two yrs,so obviously the trip was on hold.since then we keep saying you and me one day must go back there,taste those pastrys,see those views,smell those odurs as we stroll drooling past every cafe,chocolate shop and all the other wonders there.i cnt tell you how much we would loove it.and to suprise my mum by telling her what we can finally do would be the icing on the cake for all the help,dedication abd support she has given me throughout my years of illness.
thanks for this oppurtunity.
Give it to Karen.
I’m taller than she is but don’t let that sway you.
Oh and I can write bad limericks.
e.g.
There once was a female called Fifi
Who dreamt about fillets of beefy (?)
Salami and cheese
Were her sort of sleaze
Please can I have the Lille tickets
Hi,
I’ve just come out of hospital and this is exactly what it’d take to put a big big smile on my face again … a Little Lille Break!
Just to leave the UK once in my life and I would love a trip to France, I yearn to try delicate pastries and chocolat!!
Thanks
Having read through all the previous witty and/or worthy comments, I can honestly say I don’t deserve to win the tickets to Lille.
But I still have to try, don’t I?
I’d like to win the tickets because I’d otherwise not make it to Lille (Eurostar tix are so pricey that I consider it better value to buy them for trips to Paris, rather than to a little ol’ town like Lille, however pretty it may be).
I also would consider the free tix a small payback from the Eurostar for the half-dozen times I’ve picked a forward-facing seat on their on-line booking system, only to discover on boarding the train that I’ve got a nausea-inducing backward-facing seat.
In any case, now that I’ve gotten that off my chest: good luck to everyone!
I can’t imagine what I could write that would trump the many entertaining and/ or deserving requests above!
So I’ll simply say that a Little Break to Lille on the Eurostar would be rather thrilling and I’d be chuffed to bits to win it. Having salivated over the accounts from the various food bloggers who travelled there recently, I’m longing to follow in some of your footsteps.
Thank you!
Kavey
I would love to win Lille eurostar tickets. The last time i stepped in france was when I was 8 years old, the year my mum decided to take me to Disneyland Paris was the year my body decided to pop out with chicken pox!!
I would love to go back there now healthy and sense the french culture, the food and explore the beautiful surroundings of Lille.
A lille trip would make a big difference to my memories!
A break to Lille would make a big difference to me because it’s a great chance to taste the French gastronomy, visit interesting places and to learn more about their culture. Vive la France!
Here in the West Midlands it is all doom and gloom, we have been very badly affected by the recession. Also, the summers weather has been all doom and gloom, it has rained most of the summer which hasn’t helped the cause. The shopping centre, well lets be honest that too is all doom and gloom, no people and now no shops! Just starting from St Pancras station on the Eurostar and then getting overly excited in Lille about all the sights and sounds would be just great………………….and then there is the Champagne & Oyster Bar at St Pancras, that alone is enough to put a smile on anyones face!
A long weekend by rail of French wine, cheese, beer and waffles. What could possibly be better therapy?
I would love to win this trip as my dear hubby deserves a wee break as he has been travelling back and forth to Malaysia, taking care of his Dad who has been ill. So this weekend away will bring a smile to his face.
I have no sob story but I have just made a big batch of chocolate chip cookies. They are amazing. If I win the trip, I promise I’ll make a batch for you!
Good luck everyone! Unfortunately I won’t be the one to decide who wins, but in my opinion you all deserve to go…
Helen Yuet Ling
Because my wife and I have not been away for a night without the children in 6 years, and haven’t had a decent meal in France without children grumbling about the “wrong kind of chips” and “too much salad”, and we haven’t been able to drink enough wine to be able to ignore these protests. If we won, we’d eat, sleep and … well, that’s somethign else you don’t do with children around.
Whenever I go to Lille, I never stop over, all what I know of the place is the Eurostar station. If I win I promise
to get out of the train station
paint the town red
come back and blog about it all
As an American grad student in England, I am loving the opportunity to explore Europe. I want to travel everywhere, particularly to France, where I studied abroad in college but haven’t returned to since. I miss French food…the gauffres, the cheese, the vin. If I had the chance to tour Lille I would make sure to be there on a Sunday so I could visit the open air market, snap up a baguette, some olives, and a wedge (or two) of brie and then I’d sit in the main square of the old town and dine like a queen.
Good luck everyone, just one day left to go until the competition ends!
Helen Yuet Ling
I would be absolutely thrilled to be selected for the Lille tickets to not only celebrate my newly gained Masters degree but also to whisk away my best friend who wholeheartedly deserves a chance to really practice the French he’s been learning over the past year (with great effort, I might add). As a food anthropologist, I would really like the opportunity to gain a better understanding of French regional cooking by comparing the cooking styles and regional specialities to those of other regions. It would also be interesting to examine the Flemish influence and how pronounced Flemish-French relations are in comparison to those in Belgium, which I understand can be less than friendly.
Et pour les francophones parmi nous, je voudrais bien continuer à améliorer les relations entre nos deux pays…en commençant bien-sûr avec une appréciation du bon goût ! Je dirais que ça doit faire une partie essentielle de la poursuite de la paix dans notre monde… = )
The competition is now closed and the winner has been selected by We Are Social. The winner is Dan from Food Urchin! Congratulations Dan!
Thank you to everyone for entering the competition and I hope I can do another soon so that you have another chance! All the comments were great and We Are Social said it was really hard to select the winner…
Helen Yuet Ling