FRANCE | Train excursion to Maubeuge and Lille

September 2025. A few days before our Journey Across Japan, Sam, Danny, and I went an a day excursion to Maubeuge and Lille in France, just across the border with Belgium. Some proper #CrossBorderRail. From Charleroi-Central Railway Station in Wallonia, there is an S63 suburban train (while the scenery is very green and nut urban…

Monkeypox vaccine, an excuse for a day trip to Lille

Summer 2022. The monkeypox virus is spreading, almost exclusively amongst men who have sex with men (MSM). In Belgium it was and is almost impossible to be vaccinated. But in France, conditions are less strict. The Centre De Dépistage Anonyme Et Gratuit (CeGIDD) or Anonymous and Free Screening Centre in Lille (Rijsel) announced a day…