Advantages: great position.Everything in walking distance Disadvantages: our room was small
The hotel is in the old part of Lille. everything is in walking distance, even the Eurostar station (only about 5-10 mins on foot)
The hotel was clean and the staff were friendly. The breakfasts had no 'hot' dishes, just lovely French sticks, croissants, pan au chocolate , the usual cold meats & cheese, cereals etc. Tea & coffee out of those big flask things! No bar.
The bedroom was cleaned daily as was the shower/toilet / bath. The only downside was the size of the room - it was really small. Hardly any room between the side of the double bed and the patio doors. My wife & I are not big people, but it really was cramped. There was a balcony , but not a great view (into the next building), though you could see the imposing cathedral which is just behind the hotel. We were unlucky with the room size, others in the hotel were bigger. ...
Advantages: Near London by train, cosmopolitan feel, excellent transport connections, eating out, plenty to see Disadvantages: Dog poo
and vanilla waffles certainly kept out the Flanders chill ? it was markedly colder than London, and helped me smile in the face of adversity; in this case standing at every silver jewellery stall whilst hers-truly sampled the wares.
The combined smell was both heady and mouth-watering.
Some shopping trip ? we didn?t actually BUY anyone else a present, but?..
GETTING AROUND LILLE
Despite what I said about its size, the city centre is eminently do-able on foot; we even managed to drag our airline-crew overnight case on two wheels from the Lille-Europe TGV station, seemingly on the edge by the ?Périférique? by-pass to our hotel, placed very centrally next to the Opera House in Rue Des Bons Enfants* ? ten minutes walk at the most.
*I suppose if it had been the Rue Des Méchants Enfants, we?d have been kept awake all night.
On first ...
BNibbles 07.12.2004 (09.12.2004)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Lille (France)
Advantages: Varied culture, fab cuisine, nice people Disadvantages: Some shops closed Sun and Mon
't fancy sitting down to dinner! you get a huge choice of sauces to go with your kebab, and it's served in a naan style pitta bread (so it's nice and thick)
As for nightlife, I used to work in a bar in Old Lille called Cafe Oz, it's in Place Louise-de-Bettignies and it's an Aussie bar. It's actually filled with french people, and the atmosphere is usually amazing! look out for the staff dancing on the bar and offering vodka and citron to passing customers! (for free!)
The music's good too as they usually have a DJ in on the weekends.
Check out Rue Royale for late night clubs and bars (most bars are open until 2am or 3am, and the clubsa stay open til 5am most weekends.)
There are a lot of hotels in Lille and the quality and price really varies. For a real budget you can stay at Hotel de France on rue de Bethune. It's very basic, but ...
PollyErrington 16.03.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Lille (France)
