The northern town of Lille, which awaits only about an hour train ride away from Paris, is one of those places I never really felt too excited about whenever I heard people go "Lille is really nice, you should go!". Why is that? Well, let me see, perhaps because it always rains in northern France! And if it doesn't, at the very least it's cloudy and grey. This is the number one reason why, if given the choice, we are much rather south-bound. But I'm glad this time we went for it. Against all the odds we visited Lille in the end of January, which probably is the worst (read: rainy and cold) time of the year to do so, but we decided to give it a go anyway. 

Just about 50 km south of Tokyo lies Kamakura, a city, that could easily fill up an entire book of history. This city's countless temples and monuments, out of which most are Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, guarantee a day trip to remember. The town itself is pretty small with a little center district with shops and restaurants, and as you further walk or bike to different sights, you can actually catch a glimpse of traditional neighbourhoods. The seaside on the other hand, that's also said to attract tourists, was not looking too inviting to be honest...but I guess the fact that we had just been lounging the past couple of months in tropical paradises had something to do with the fact that the Japanese beach didn't quite do the trick for us ;) Go figure. 

A while back I wrote how we've experienced an Indian summer in Paris this year. Well, make it a real long one now, because last weekend as we welcomed the month of November, the temperatures were still above 20°C (which is well above the seasonal average). So it's been exceptionally warm and beautiful autumn here and we've been able to enjoy parks and terraces far longer than usually...but I have an itch that the real Parisian fall/winter is knocking our door slowly and November will be the usual mix of grey sky, drizzle and humid cold. But let's not paint the devil on the wall just yet...