Brewskies and Broke Down Cars

There's been a lot of good snail and slug activity at the Lille, France airbnb. We waved goodbye to them because we've used all of our Olympic basketball tickets and it was time to say adieu or adios or whatever.

I stopped at a roadside bakery in wherever.

I was greatly tempted by the Alabama tacos BUT

I got this apple thing

And some other cool stuff. It was win.

We were chugging through northern France, skimming the surface of Belgium, and passed through Solre-le-Château.

We hopped over the line for a quick little day trip.

Lydia and I had so much fun on our Orval Abbey trip back in the day that I was excited to take the opportunity to visit another Trappist monk beer making operation.

Chimay Brewery is a brewery at Scourmont Abbey, a Trappist monastery in Chimay, Belgium. We started off with some beers and food at their little restaurant.

I can't resist a deal so I had to grab this beer and cheese sampler situation that came with a free ticket to the tour.

Ernie liked the cheese so take that as an official seal of quality.

I had never tried steak tartare and I never will again. It's... eating a big pile of uncooked hamburger. There were lots of sides so I was probably not mixing it correctly but... no thank you.

Afterward we did the Chimay Experience.

We went to check out the abbey grounds afterwards.

I was minding my own business driving back through France when I realized we had a flat tire. Calling for help was quite an ordeal. We started with the rental company who was worthless and ended up calling the friggin' gendarmerie who acts as the police in the middle of nowhere. The term "is derived from the medieval French expression gens d'armes, which translates to 'men-at-arms'".

It was quite a circus. We got a tow truck and a truck with the flashing arrows on it to keep people from hitting the operation.

I read something about it being a law to put your lil emergency vest on when investigating roadside car issues. Safety first!

Ern played around at the car dealership our car got towed to while we waited for a cab to take us to our next destination.

We eventually made it to our new living quarters in Épernay, France.

The Avengers

We had a fun day of stomping around Lille, France, waiting for the US Olympic basketball game this evening.

We have tickets to a match at this stadium. It looks pretty cool.

I've been doing some culinary exploration into the various puddings and cremes and the like at the French grocery stores.

My Batsuit is ready for the next time I'm called upon.

Les Fusillés lillois commemorates the execution by the Germans of five resistance fighters during the First World War.

"Maison Méert - A history of gourmetism and elegance

Founded in 1761 in Lille, the Maison Méert is one of the oldest pastries and confectionery in France still in operation. It is especially famous for its waffle stuffed with Madagascar vanilla, a specialty that has become emblematic."

I picked up several cans of fish to take home from this fun shop.

The Airbnb had a winding staircase. Luckily it also had a lil baby gate to stop any lil babies.

Happily after clicking the refresh button 300 times on the Olympics website I was able to secure a ticket for the USA vs South Sudan basketball game today. Sadly I was only able to secure one. In a very European move one could only resell their Olympics tickets on the official website. They were also only able to resell them for face value. So no scalping of any kind. Which is cool to keep prices low but also meant that supply was hard to come by.

It was a stacked team of Dream Team-like proportions. Here was LeBron doing his iconic chalk toss before the game. I don't usually like him very much but on Team USA I felt like it was acceptable to cheer for him.

"The team had been given the nickname "the Avengers" by some media outlets due to their high profile roster, which was assembled after the 2023 U.S. World Cup squad failed to medal. The Olympic squad included four National Basketball Association (NBA) players who have won its league most valuable player (MVP) award—LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry and Joel Embiid—an Olympic first."

Apparently Joel Embiid is also a French citizen. The locals must have been butthurt that he didn't play on the French team because they booed him a lot.

It was a lot of fun, and the good guys won.