The quaint city of Lille lies north of Paris and 1 hours 20 minuntes from London St Pancras onboard the superb Eurostar service. Currently you can travel to Lille on Eurostar from as little as £27.50 book now with the rail experts raileasy.co.uk to guarantee the best fares.
The legend of Lydéric and Phinaert dates the city of Lilles’ foundation, France’s 4th largest city in the year 640 BC, however the earliest mention of the city appears in the archives dated 1066. Both ancient and contemporary delights are on offer in the city of Lille, voted European capital of culture in 2005.
The Palais des Beaux Arts rivals Paris’s Louvre as France’s number one museum; a restored 19th century palace with contemporary touches, the museum hosts and displays art from a variety of historic artists including Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, Donatello and Raphaël.
Lille is a picturesque cobbled city and and the sights can easily be explore on foot: La Piscine is a must see in the city, a reformed Art Deco public bath, where visitors can spend hours gazing at sculptures through the water or marvelling at Picasso’s ceramics in the ancient showers. The city of Lille recently transformed an old industrial estate to form The Mad House (Maison Folie de Wazemmes) in 2004. The Mad House provides Art exhibitions, theatre performances, atmospheric open spaces, and Turkish steam rooms.
For a break from Lille’s art delights roam the Parc zoologique and marvel at the endangered snow leopards, pelicans and capuchin monkeys all for free. The vibrant hub of Vieux Lille is Grand‘Place; brassieres, bars and cafes are in abundance here and a market has existed on these cobbled streets since the 11th century, the centre of Grand’Place is the Vieille Bourse (stock exchange) which provides a colourful 17th century facade to social area of Grand’Place. The seasonal markets are a great way to find a unique gift to take home at the end of a short break.
There are two train stations in Lille, the Lille-Europe station which provides the high speed international services to European destinations and Lilles-Flandres station, primarily providing slower speed, shorter distance trains.
