My first couple of days here have been fairly lazy and restful ones. The first day Stephanie drove me around the countryside a bit to go get lunch and groceries on base, then to a farm to get locally produced cheeses and fruit juice. It looks a lot like where I grew up with rolling hills and farmland, just a European version of it. One of the first things I noticed was the architecture. Most of the buildings seem to have steeply peaked roofs, which made me think that the style originated in a place with lots of snow. Another thing I noticed was that all the vehicles are just a tad smaller than American versions, and so are the roads. Nearly every non-highway road that I've been on has been very narrow and curvy, with traffic intersections that don't always match up well or make a whole lot of sense. A road can also go from two way to one way and back with no warning that I can see. There are a lot of different traffic signs, but it does make sense to have signs using symbols and colors to give direction rather than words in an area where you may have people from all over driving.
Last night we visited the Christmas market in Binche. It was quite tiny and there wasn't really anything there that I wanted to buy, but it was interesting just to walk around. There are quite a few old-looking buildings scattered around, and ruins of who knows what, but since it was dark I was only able to snap a picture of one cool building that was lit with Christmas decorations.
