leonardcohenforum.com

I am relieved really, that quote at the Grammy about having already crossed the finishing line was worrying me a little bit.

I had 2 tickets for Lille so I am hoping I could keep one on automatic transfer as it is 3rd row and the best I have ever got, get a refund on the other and purchase one for Marseille on "The Birthday" instead with that money.... would make a nice 2 centre week. Does anyone well familiar with France know how it would be easiest to travel from Marseilles to Lille - private jet excluded of course!

rpan wrote:I am relieved really, that quote at the Grammy about having already crossed the finishing line was worrying me a little bit.

I had 2 tickets for Lille so I am hoping I could keep one on automatic transfer as it is 3rd row and the best I have ever got, get a refund on the other and purchase one for Marseille on "The Birthday" instead with that money.... would make a nice 2 centre week. Does anyone well familiar with France know how it would be easiest to travel from Marseilles to Lille - private jet excluded of course!

I'm planning to do the same. I will cancel my ticket for Strasbourg and I'll try to find a decent seat for Marseille.
TGV is quite expensive (about 130 €) and it's a very long trip (about 8 hours !), but I guess it's the only way to travel from Marseille to Lille.
Do you have a ticket 3rd row front ? If so, I'll cancel my ticket 10th row front and take over yours.

Inne

Just found out there's a Ryanair flight from Marseille to Lille for 56,26 € (all taxes included) !

There are going to be quite a few Leonard Cohen fans in Lille on the evening of March 3rd.
Would be a good opportunity for local musicians/bands to publicise any performances or put on a special performance for the evening. Lille must have some good venues? A mix of Leonard Cohen songs and Jacques Brel in Northern France would be just perfect.

So relieved I've been able to cancel my hotel without charge, wish I could say the same for the travel arrangements I think I'm going to hang on to my ticket though, as it's such an easy venue to get to for me, but I'm also so tempted by Marseille (presuming there'll be any tickets available) - the Barcelona celebration was fantastic, it would be great to experience that again. They do seem to choose such great, sunny Mediterranean spots for his birthday, I wonder if it's deliberate - if I was touring I'd make damn sure I spent my birthday somewhere nice

well it seems that i am going

Received an email today from Infos Billetterie where I booked my ticket. A collegue who's french is a lot better then mine translated it for me.
It said that the tickets are automatically transferred to september 25th unless you want a refund. For a refund you have to apply before march 15th.

So that was an easy decision , just do nothing and it will be allright

If anyone has a spare ticket for lille in september, i may well be interested

Many thanks

cohenadmirer wrote:If anyone has a spare ticket for lille in september, i may well be interested

Many thanks

I do have a spare one but I know forum members like them really near the front so may not be good enough. It is in P3 which is central and is as far as I can work out in row 10 -P3 Rang J place 009
128 euro

It is electronic ticket so would have to be a rendezvous arrangement.

Anyone interested let me know, or I will be seeking refund at end of the week.

cohenadmirer wrote:If anyone has a spare ticket for lille in september, i may well be interested

Many thanks

I do have a spare one but I know forum members like them really near the front so may not be good enough. It is in P3 which is central and is as far as I can work out in row 10 -P3 Rang J place 009
128 euro

It is electronic ticket so would have to be a rendezvous arrangement.

Anyone interested let me know, or I will be seeking refund at end of the week.

Thankyou . you are right most of us would like ideally to be on stage , but noneheless that sounds like a good seat . i would be interested in that ticket if still available. please email or pm (hoping i can work out how to use these )

If anyone is still looking for tickets for Lille, there are a pair of seats in the third row (C) of P2 currently available on GDP. FNAC have a single seat in row G of the central block, P3.

Wendy

Couldn't find a taker on here for either of my spare third row singles (in P2) for Lille, so I got them refunded and they're now available on the GDP website if anyone wants a single ticket. Although I expect quite a few good seats will start appearing on there between now and the refunds deadline of March 15th...

Did anyone make the trip to Lille in the end? If so, what did you think of the town?

I got back earlier this afternoon, and have to say although the feeling of "I should be seeing LC today " popped up a few times yesterday, it was an alright trip. Lille probably wouldn't a place I would have chosen (before, or after having been) to visit for the fun of it, but it's an alright town, and as a bit of a francophile anyway, I can't complain too much at all. There is a nice little Zoo (with free entry ) there I'd recommend for anyone visiting in September that has a reasonable array of wildlife which, most welcomingly, was not all sat behind a 10m tall wire fence and metre thick perspex (take note London Zoo!)- a lot of the animals inc zebras, rhinos and monkeys are seperated off by little more than a small moat and ankle-low rope. Shopping is also good, especially in the Euralille shopping centre, which I noticed when I walked past is directly on top/next to the Hotel Lille Europe some people booked into this time round. There is a huge Carrefour hypermarché in that shopping centre which is great for stocking up on French food goodies and cheap wine (even the Premier Cru Bordeaux's were only 7-10 Euros or so for a bottle, and the cheaper ones started off at around 2 Euros for a standard 70cl bottle of domestically-produced wine) to take home.

No, we didn't do the trip to Lille in the end.
Thanks for the info though, should be useful for September.
I have had lots of feelings this week along the lines 'should be in France' and 'should be seeing Leonard tonight'
Oh well, soon be September. Unless Uk in July maybe...

We went to Lille too, partly because we'd booked onward travel to Paris, but I couldn't say no to a planned trip and time off work etc. Too tempting.

I couldn't resist guessing who else might be there for the same reason by their appearance. I like to think I got it right.

We did the bus tour that goes from the tourist office. It last 50 minutes and has headphone commentaries in various languages. A good way to see what's where at the outset. We visited the Art gallery at The Musee des Beaux Art, went to the outdoor food market and saw a film early evening - like most French towns there are loads of nice cinemas that show films in the original language with French subtitles. Ate at a Chti - local language and culture - restaurant and ordered a strange dish of potatoes on bread with a side dish of potatoes. Went to see the venue for the concert. Functional. Tried to get inside but failed. Doesn't look huge and is a fifteen minute walk fom the centre.