Photo : Chabe01 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Lille
Lille, prefecture of the Nord and capital of the Hauts-de-France region, is the tenth-largest commune in France with about 238,000 inhabitants. Situated about fifteen kilometres from the Belgian border, it was conquered by Louis XIV in 1667 and then definitively attached to France after the War of the Spanish Succession. This Flemish past still marks its architecture.
Old Lille brings together ancient streets, arcaded houses built mainly in the early seventeenth century and the Vieille Bourse, a seventeenth-century monument that dominates the Grand Place. The belfry of the town hall is among the belfries listed as UNESCO World Heritage. The Palais des Beaux-Arts, an important museum in the city, completes the cultural offer.
Every early September, the Braderie de Lille, a huge flea market, attracts between two and three million visitors. The city has also been transformed more recently, with the Euralille business district and its automatic metro, opened in 1983. The centre is easy to walk from the station, and cafés and restaurants are numerous.
