France, A Detour to Lille

Can’t honestly remember why we detoured to Lille, France for a couple of days between our visits to Bruges and Brussels, but we did. I have visited France nearly a dozen times and have traveled all over the country, but I found Lille to be different than any other French city. Sure, there are influences of other countries in the different regions of France, but Lille in the Nord region, with its majestic buildings, had a very distinct Belgium feel, like a smaller Brussels.

Lounge/Bar at L'Hermitage Gantois, Autograph Collection

We stayed at L'Hermitage Gantois, Autograph Collection. We liked this quirky hotel, it is a great mix of the very old and new. We arrived mid-day and were promptly taken to our room in the older part of the hotel. As our lovely escort opened our rather crooked door, she announced that we had received a room upgrade. It was indeed a nice, large room, and it was also the most unusual hotel room we’ve ever been in. We entered an area with a wardrobe and worktable. To the left was a large bedroom with a king-sized bed, sitting area and an old fireplace. To the right was a huge bathroom, well appointed, including bathrobes and slippers.

Friendly Native :)

The floors were so slanted that the furniture legs had to be cut to various lengths to keep them level, but it was simply charming. We had windows in every room with a view of the flower-packed inner courtyard. As worn and crooked as the old part of the hotel was, the public spaces were sleek and modern. The atrium cocktail lounge was very pleasant, and the piano music added to the nice ambience. The drink/wine prices were very high compared to other places we stayed on our trip and compared to the nearby restaurants and bars. My husband ordered a second glass of wine which, along with the server, never appeared. We took it as our cue to leave and find a place for dinner.

The front staff was helpful with restaurant advice and directed us to very good, non-touristy places to dine each evening. The hotel is situated a little out of the way from the center of town and the area wasn’t the best, but we are walkers and easily walked to both train stations and to all the Lille sights.

Until the 1950s Lille was the capital city of French Flanders. It was the heart of a thriving region during the industrial revolution with its production of coal, machinery, and textiles.

Refreshed & Full of Charm

The city has modernized and has lost its reputation for being a grimy, run-down industrial city. The old industrial buildings have been either demolished and replaced or renovated. The beautiful Flemish-style Great Square (la Grande Place) was cleaned up and pedestrianized, making it an appealing and enjoyable gathering spot. In 1983 Lille became the fourth city in France to open a metro system, which is now the second most extensive system in France after Paris.

A favorable location on the Belgian border and three high-speed rail routes (Lille is less than an hour and a half by high-speed trains from London, Brussels, and Paris) have helped to make the city a European hub and popular tourist town.

Lille Palais des Beaux Arts 

Lille prides itself as an art center, having three fine-quality art galleries within the town and surrounding area. The Lille Palais des Beaux Arts is considered one of the most complete provincial art galleries in France. The collection includes works by Raphael, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Goya, El Greco, David, Corot, Courbet, Delacroix, Rubens, Manet, Seurat, and Picasso. Unfortunately, while it is certainly a lovely museum, we weren’t overly impressed. Somehow it just lacked the wow factor we were expecting. Perhaps part of the reason was that we were not able to enjoy all the rooms. As we approached one area, a woman walked up and closed the doors saying they would be reopened at 2:00pm, no explanation was given. Since it was 11:00am, we did not wish to wait the three hours and were thus denied access to a good portion of the museum. I think this was inappropriate, as we paid to see the entire collection and weren’t given notice of any closures.

Basilica of Notre Dame de la Treille Exterior

Located in Villeneuve d'Ascq (Metro 1), the Lille Metropolitan Area Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art is one of the best in France and offers a varied collection of paintings and sculptures including works by Braque, Picasso, Klee, Kandinski, Miro, and Modigliani. Many of the sculptures are located outside the museum in the gardens.

Basilica of Notre Dame de la Treille Interior

The Piscine (Swimming Pool) art gallery in Roubaix (Metro 2, Tramway R) is the most unusual of the three Lille galleries. It is housed in and around the town's former Art Deco public swimming pool, which originally opened in 1932. The pool is now a feature of the museum and is surrounded by sculptures. La Piscine houses a substantial collection of 19th- and early 20th-century French paintings and sculptures including works by Fantin-Latour, Ingres, Bastien Lepage, as well as lesser-known artists.

There are two other art galleries near Lille. The Louvre Lens is a subsidiary of the Paris Louvre and resides in the former mining city of Lens, and the Matisse Museum can be found a bit further away in the small town of Le Catteau.

Vieille Bourse, Old Stock Exchange

The Basilica of Notre Dame de la Treille is beautiful and worth a stop. The construction of the Cathedral began in 1856 and ended, after numerous alterations, with its reopening on December 19, 1999. The Gothic-Revival style church was built to honor the Virgin Mary and was named for a 12th-century statue of Mary that was protected by an iron trellis. The statue was believed to have had miraculous powers. The more modern façade is not like most of the grand cathedrals found throughout Europe, but the soaring interior with its richly decorated altar and stained-glass windows is just as lovely as any cathedral.

La Grande Place

Old Lille is a joy to wander with its restored Flemish-influenced houses on crooked cobblestone streets. La Grande Place, the Main Square in town, is a favorite meeting place for locals. It is stunning and shows off a variety of architectural styles from the 17th to the 20th century. The square’s centerpiece is the Vieille Bourse, Old Stock Exchange, built from 1652 to 1653. It is the town's finest building made up of twenty-four little houses surrounding an arched courtyard. Another attractive building is the Théâtre du Nord, which was once used to house soldiers from the sentry guard.

Parc de la Citadelle

Green public spaces and gardens are plentiful in Lille. The largest park is the Parc de la Citadelle with its 123 acres of land. Encircled by the Deûle canal, the park includes the Bois de Boulogne woods that surround the ramparts of the Citadelle. The Citadelle is a massive star-shaped fortress that was designed and built after France captured Lille in 1667. It still serves as a French and NATO military base. The city’s zoo is also a part of the massive park.

Lille has become quite a fashion hub. In addition to the fashion district, great shopping is abundant in the form of nice boutiques in and around the Old Town as well as markets and department stores.

Creperie Beaurepaire

The cuisine of northeast France is rich and comforting with hearty stews, suckling pig, sausages and hams, dumplings, and sauerkraut dishes. Much of the food more closely resembles German and Flemish fare rather than traditional French cooking. An abundance of excellent fish from the Atlantic and freshwater lakes and rivers makes seafood dishes popular too. Fruits and vegetables are produced in abundance and are often served in sweet and savory tarts such as the creamy and well-known quiche Lorraine. Rich cakes are popular, especially Kougelhopf and madeleine sponge cakes.

Fine restaurants are plentiful throughout the city. We visited Creperie Beaurepaire one day for lunch. We were seated in their charming cellar and enjoyed two galettes, one with ratatouille and one with ham and cheese. The staff was pleasant and efficient, the prices reasonable, and we found it to be a really nice experience.

Dinner at Le Barbue d'Anvers

We also had lunch at a smaller café called La Regalade. We just happened upon it when we first arrived in Lille. Our food was very good and reasonable, and our server, who also appeared to be the owner or manager, was very nice to us, helping with directions and pleasantly putting up with my poor French.

One of our evenings we headed off to Le Barbue d'Anvers for dinner. The food was surprisingly good and creative, and the staff was friendly and helpful. I had the sea bass and my husband had the tuna served with a sorbet, which was rather different. Both dishes were delicious. Even though it is situated in the old town center where many tourist spots are located, Le Barbue d'Anvers appeared to be a favorite of locals, but we were made to feel welcome and had a very good time at this fun restaurant.

Loads of Joie de Vivre in Lille

French is, of course, the language of Lille. We did not find that English was as widely spoken as it is in some of the other larger cities in France. We got by fine with my bad French language skills, but visitors should brush up or learn some French to make it a bit easier to navigate the tourist sites and restaurant menus.

Our couple of days in Lille were very enjoyable and were made particularly nice by the welcoming and friendly locals. We were glad to have taken a little detour from Belgium to visit. Traveling was made easy given that both countries are part of the European Union, use the Euro (€), and are connected by high-speed trains. Our next and final stop on this trip was Brussels and we took a high-speed train that got us there in no time. I’ll talk about our visit there in a later post.