weekend in brussels!

Brussels or as the French call it, Bruxelles, was a wonderful time. There really isn't much to see that really interesting to me, but I had a good time nonetheless. Of course, it doesn't hurt to be enjoying a chocolate covered waffle. Life doesn't get better than that, does it? We saw the sites including the Grand Place, the Manneken Pis fountain, the European Parliament, etc. We enjoyed the local claim-to-fames: waffles, chocolate, fries, and beer. Everything except mussels, because they're gross. We also bought a bunch of chocolates from this store that had chocolates made with liquors. I had ones with Amaretto, rum, champagne (favorite of the bunch!), Baileys, and Grand Marnier. They were all amazing!

Enjoying a chocolate covered waffle.

It was also interesting to see the language differences in Belgium. Yes, they speak French in Brussels (as well as Flemish), but some of the vocabulary is different. Not to mention the accent!

In France, this sign would say "Sauf" instead of "Excepte".

As for us, we spoke entirely in French. That was nice. It's become so easy to express myself in French. I don't even really have to think about it much unless it's something really complicated that I would even have trouble saying in English. Plus, I can translate or help the others without so much as really thinking about it. I know there's the question about improving my accent and the like, but that's not the end goal in this experience. I have Claude for that. And honestly, what would be better picking up a British accent while speaking French (whose accent according to Claude actually is closer to the French than us Americans) or the dreaded chaunoise accent? Yeah, that's what I thought.

Next up... we're thinking of Paris this coming weekend. Or maybe Lille if we can score a ride there. We'll see.