lacquemant de lille, lille

such absolutely brilliant waffles at this tiny corner shop in lille. lille feels like a pretty tiny french town, full of gorgeous architecture and a pretty decent high street (enough to do some shopping, if you’d like).

we arrived here on a day-trip from paris, and were looking forward to meals of moules and frites here, especially after hearing my father’s recollections of great mussels when he last visited a few years ago. the proximity to belgium certainly reinforced our expectations of a good shellfish meal, but I have to say that what I was most excited by was the prospect of a good waffle.

and we got it, here. this corner store looked pretty tourist-beaten, with colourful fluorescent lights and a surprisingly large kitchen – and they displayed an expectation-lowering-tourist-centric menu that included milkshakes, waffles (belgian and not) and soft serves. we decided on the standard square waffle, and requested for it to be freshly-made because we were put off by a rather sad stack of belgian-style waffles.

we opted to dip it in chocolate – why the heck wouldn’t you – and there it was, a crisp rectangle with golden exteriors and a coat of shiny chocolate, as well as still fluffy innards. I’m not ashamed to say that I walked down that street and most probably with incriminating stains of chocolate on my face.

and I’d do it again. I suppose the moral of the story here is that you shouldn’t overlook what seem to be tourist traps – they can shore up great gems sometimes.