Lille

It’s just a short walk between Lille Flandres and Lille Europe stations. Let’s go the long way around and see the town.

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You can download and print a copy of the strolls here

Lille Flanders to Lille Europe, a long way around (blue)

Leave station walk straight ahead down the Rue Faidherbe, which thanks to the road narrowing and liberal use of bollards around town, has plenty of space for cyclists, street art and us. At the end is the impressively large Opera House with impressively low ticket prices (starting at 5 Euros).

But the star of the show in this square, the Vieille Bourse (Old Stock Exchange) on the left, which was built in the 1650s and is actually 24 houses joined together. It was needed to support the booming textile industry which made this place one of the wealthiest parts of Europe.

It was build with the approval of the king - that’s to say the King Phillip IV of Spain as this was part of the Spanish Netherlands at the time. But making such a great show of wealth was always going to attract attention.

Over the border in France King Louis IV a.k.a the Sun King, had his eye on this little gem and thanks to the genius of military engineer, Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, Lille became French 1668.

These days, the main action taking place is in the arcaded courtyard in the middle where locals like to hangout playing chess and buying second-hand books.

Meanwhile the businessmen got to play in the new Chamber of Commerce which nestles between the Vielle Bourse and the Opera house - nice clock.

Behind the Vielle Bourse is the Grand Place with the Goddess on a column pointing down at the ground - as if she’s just seen a bit the street cleaners forgot to sweep.

Continue through the square and down Rue de la Bourse on the right, which brings us to the back end of the new Chamber of Commerce.

Now we are going to head for the old town and the cathedral.

Head down Rue Lepelletier, past the solitary tree and all the way to the end (becoming Rue Bartholomé Masurel) which sweeps round to the first view of the Cathedral which might come as a bit of a surprise. In the mid 19th Century, the wealthy (and pious) denizens of Lille realised their huge city was missing something - a Cathedral. This took place at a time when there were various sightings of the Virgin Mary who seemed keen to help helped the locals out. Other cities like Lyon and Boulogne decided to build new basilicas to the Virgin Mary and this was Lille’s contrbution. A lack of funds meant that it wasn’t completed until the 1990s, but that meant new building techniques could be employed, like the luminous marble wall - go inside to see the effect.

After you have finished, continue on through the to the Old Town charm of Rue de la Monnaie. At this point, if you are feeling sprightly and want to see Vauban’s handywork, you could follow the fortress path below (black).

Also, just around the corner from here is Musée de l’Hospice Comtesse, where you can learn about the history of Lille and see its eclecteic collection of paintings, sculptures, tiles and puppets from the last 400 years..

Otherwise, let’s carry on to our right down the Rue de la Monnaie and left through Pl. Louise de Bettignies and on to Rue de Gand. All around here are plenty of places to stop, and lounge around over a cafe and something interesting to nibble. But if you want to try a trending gourmand experience, you could stop at Estaminet Du Welsh and grab yourself some Welsh Rarebit made with chedder cheese. Unlike his erstwhile British counterpart, President Macron hasn’t had a hissy fit about embracing foreign food.

At the end of Rue to Gand is the Porte de Gand (Ghent in French) where the brickwork looks like it’s trying to direct the traffic to anywhere else. Now we have reached the ramparts it’s time to turn around and head towards the station. Turn left down Rue de Courtrai. As the road widens out we need to wiggle left, then right down the Rue des Cannoniers. There’s a gunners (canonniers) museum which is just behind the street (entrance on Rue des Urbanistes) where you can find out more about what firepower was needed to defend or take a city like Lille.

Further down the street, after crossing Boulevard Carnot is the Porte de Roubaix on the left - so you can see we are following the path of the city walls.

The stations are in the regenerated area known as ‘Euralille’ and just in case you don’t get the hint, there’s a big sign.

Go through the Plaza and to your left for Lille Europe and to your right to get back to Lille Flandres.