So, I'll be straight up: I was very tempted to call this blog “Surviving a bomb scare and other things to do in Lille, France”, but I thought best not to be too click-baity. However, my trip was plagued by many, many messages asking how I'd even reached Lille, following news that an unexploded WW2 bomb had cancelled ALL Paris-London/London-Paris trains on my day of travel. Thankfully, Lille sits on the Brussels/Amsterdam line; our destination was the only one running that day from the Eurostar terminal at Kings Cross. In fact, it was the smoothest security experience: less than 10 minutes from disembarking my Thameslink to being sat in the waiting lounge.
I was set to be in Lille for less than 60 hours - Friday afternoon to Sunday evening - and had booked it as one final trip abroad before Baby arrives. I was travelling with my friend and former flatmate whom I've taken many trips with (Brussels, Singapore, Faro, Budapest, Copenhagen) - and she was very understanding about my slowness compared to previous trips (and my annoying postnasal drip cough at night!!). Somehow, despite it being early March, we struck a weekend with gorgeous weather, so with our coats left at the hotel and sunnies firmly on our faces, we made our way around the city.
The architecture
When people - including our tour guide (more on the tour later) - asked “why Lille?” our main answer was the architecture. That, and “why not” as it's a European city we've never visited before, and so accessible from London. In the time it takes me to get to work from home, I was in Lille from Kings Cross!
The architecture is gorgeous. There is a real mix of influences, due to the city’s history: predominantly French, Flemish, and Spanish. Many buildings reminded me of Brussels and Amsterdam, as well as other cities. One of the arguably most gorgeous spots we stumbled upon by accident was La Vielle Bourse market. It gave me massive Seville/ Moorish vibes in its look, but was a cute French market, selling everything from prints to old CDs. In general through, most places had bags of character and gorgeous exteriors, such as the Grand Place, Lille Opera, and even just random buildings as we strolled down the street.
The history
As a town so close to a country border, Lille has a storied history when it comes to wars, invasion, and revolutions. We learnt a lot about how that impacted the architecture on our tour of the city; for example, a lot of buildings surviving from the Spanish rule were red and yellow. This tour was fab; our tour guide was a local uni student who drove us around in a classic car, with an open roof, for an hour, detailing the city's past - and a little of its present. It was a great way to cover the majority of the city (especially as I couldn't comfortably walk for as long as I normally would on city breaks), and get our bearings. We saw places like Church of Saint-Andre, where Charles de Gaulle was baptised; the most narrow house in Lille; and even the exterior of one of the many army bases. We were surprised to learn that back in the 14th century, the city was much like Venice or Amsterdam in that it was filled with canals. That's why some of the streets still reflect that winding style.
Another historical spot we visited was the Parc de la Citadelle, built in the 1600s in a unique star/pentagonal shape as the city walls. Today, it is a peaceful park, around which we wandered for a good hour or so, admiring the wildlife and the whole expanse.
In a more modern turn of events, we did the majority of our city exploring on International Women's Day, passing activists in the main square (and putting our French language skills to the test as we discussed what was going on with one of the organisers). It was a great day and being pregnant too made me all the more reflective over just how strong, infallible, and incredible women are…
The food
We had some lovely food during our visit - despite the fact I couldn't devour the French wine or charcuterie, and je deteste le fromage. We stayed at a hotel chain I was familiar with, having reviewed one of their outposts in London a couple of years ago, and on the first night as we were quite tired, we ate here too. Their dinner menu, and mocktails, were actually pretty good - as was their selection at breakfast. That pain au chocolat was FAB. I must say though, that build your own teabag thing? Fun but unnecessary, haha.
On our first afternoon, we stopped by Les Freres Pinard, where we enjoyed a leisurely couple of hours with wine (for my friend), non-alcoholic gin and tonic (for me), olives, and bread, alongside a fair few rounds of card games. We found that here - as with everywhere - the Lille locals were super friendly!
Another spot we headed to was Tripletta, an Italian restaurant located on a main street of restaurants, Rue de Gand; we sat outside their sister bar, Carmi. I had a wonderful ginger mocktail, and a lovely traditional Napoli pizza (traditional meaning they actually had a no cheese pizza on their menu YAY); although not French, it was lovely to sit alfresco. We did however have a lovely French meal at Campion Brasserie: my stewed beef was gorgeous and rich, served with some delish frites, and again, a delectable mocktail - I must say, I was most impressed by the flavours of mocktails everywhere we ate/drank on this trip.
We were advised to head to Meert, one of the oldest shops in Lille - the building dating back to 1677 - for local gaufres, which were like oblong stroopwafels. They were nice, but I think they needed to be warmer to be really enjoyed. We then spent a lot of our last afternoon alfresco in EARLY MARCH, drinking and snacking on chips and salad, and playing cards.
I have been pleasantly surprised by Lille as a European city break. I had worried there wouldn't be a lot to do, but I reckon it is perfect for a full Friday-Saturday, or Friday-Sunday getaway. If I were to return, I would make sure to visit the bar street of Rue de Royale, and also perhaps get an earlier train home on the Sunday - we were booked on the last one - as it really is a day of rest in Lille, with most restaurants and shops closed.