Lille (France)

I’ve now been to Lille three times in the past year or so, each previous time, merely for the day. Only over the last weekend did we stay overnight.

Why Lille? Well, rather like the reason dogs lick their naughty bits, it’s because we can.

Lille is the first main stop in France on the Eurostar/TGV route from the Channel Tunnel – yes, I know you could get a train that stops at Calais (Fréthun), but that’s like getting ...
...ever see.

Lille is a hub for northern Europe’s fast rail routes, being on the border with Belgium – Brussels is an impressive 38 minutes away, and Paris is no slouch at one hour distant.

Lille is a former European Capital of Culture, having just handed over the mantle to Cork last month.

Outside of Paris, Lille is northern France’s centre for art and museums, and overall, France’s 4th-largest city.
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I’ve now been to Lille three times in the past year or so, each previous time, merely for the day. Only over the last weekend did we stay overnight.

Why Lille? Well, rather like the reason dogs lick their naughty bits, it’s because we can.

Lille is the first main stop in France on the Eurostar/TGV route from the Channel Tunnel – yes, I know you could get a train that stops at Calais (Fréthun), but that’s like getting out at Bristol Parkway and expecting to be in Bristol!

Gare Lille-Europe arrives outside your train window 1 hour and 40 minutes after London Waterloo International disappears. Stage 1 of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL), means that we now get to hurtle through Kent at 186 M.P.H. before slowing to a mere 100 M.P.H. to shrug off the 32 miles of tunnel in a mere 20 minutes.

Doing 'a ton' MORE than even the over-the-limit cars on the adjacent M20 HAS to be the best advert for a train you’ll ever see.

Lille is a hub for northern Europe’s fast rail routes, being on the border with Belgium – Brussels is an impressive 38 minutes away, and Paris is no slouch at one hour distant.

Lille is a former European Capital of Culture, having just handed over the mantle to Cork last month.

Outside of Paris, Lille is northern France’s centre for art and museums, and overall, France’s 4th-largest city.

Most of all, Lille is a nice place; to eat in, to stay in, to wander around and look at, and heaven forbid, to buy things in!

WHY PICK NOW? AKA “CROYEZ-VOUS AU PÈRE-NOËL?”

Good question – I’m glad you asked. If the passengers on Saturday’s 10:42 departure for Brussels were anything to go by, the Torygraph’s* “get a weekend return for the price of a day-return offer” was going great guns.

*Not that I read it, you understand, but my mother keeps putting all their travel offers my way!

The other good reason for picking now, is that the Lille Christmas Fair is under way, the Grand’ Place being given over to a massive Ferris wheel and carousels. They’ve even built a complete two-storey Chinese restaurant, although what that’s got to do with Christmas is anyone’s guess. However, for some obscure reason, I find that other people’s ‘tat’ seems so much more palatable than our own – a case of "Santa’s Grotto v. Santa’s grotty", if you know what I mean.

I did have to smile though at the serious Nativity Scene which would have been OK left unadorned, but the Père-Noël skiing down the cotton-wool snow-clad roof did tend to add a certain anarchic touch as he went.

The hot chestnuts, spicy glühwein 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 sight, the immediate environs of the new station are stark and windy, with buildings that will date very quickly, but within five minutes you are within the older original areas with narrow streets and distinctly Flemish-influenced architecture.

Lille has two Métro lines, each with driverless rubber-tyred trains and safety doors at the platform edge like our own Jubilee-Line extension. Be warned; ‘rubber-tyred’ does not mean particularly smooth riding, but road-style acceleration does apply, and you fail to find a grab-handle at your peril. These trains have even less floor space than London’s deep-level ‘tube’ trains, but the higher ceilings mean that those squashed against the doors don’t end up doing Quasimodo impressions on alighting. Since these trains are only three or four cars long, the rush hour must be 'cosy'.

The Métro architecture has that curious out-of-date 80’s styling by which Brussels also seems haunted – I could have done without the loud disco-funk ‘background’ music blaring out on a Sunday morning down at platform level. Is this to deter buskers, I wonder? It works.

Less able-bodied users need to seek out the separate lift shaft if there is one, as the escalators only seem to help you up and out, rather than to get down there in the first place, this being the domain of steepish stairs.

A single Métro journey costs 1.20€, and in theory the machines can change bank notes, but finding one with change was something else. I walked back from the Wazemmes street market yesterday because we could only scrape together 1.20€ in coins for one of us to travel – guess who? Still, it was only three stops back to Rihour, near the Opera House and I got see more of the less formal bits of the city, like Rue Léon Gambetta, an ordinary shopping ‘High Street’ for ordinary people to buy ordinary things. Whilst it’s nice to wander the old quarter, predictably now turned over in a rash of ‘twee-ness’ to the sales of posh clothing, expensive watches and things you never knew you wanted, you do begin to wonder where the locals buy a box of matches or a roll of bog paper.

Buses also abound, as do stopping trains from the terminus Gare Lille Flandres. Lille’s suburban transport network stretched right to the border with Belgium, to places like Armentières and even Wattrelos - that's if you can actually spot where the border is these days. Typically, it’s easier for a visitor to get the hang of the Métro rather than agonise over which bus goes where – I guess I’d be the same as a visitor to London. Even today, I still only know where a handful of buses go despite an encyclopaedic knowledge of the Underground.

WHERE WE STAYED

Our hotel was called Mercure Lille Centre Le Royal (I think the word Opéra and Accor also featured in there somewhere – these ever-lengthening names tend to happen when hotel chains devour each other). It was a pleasant enough 4-star hotel costing us £69 for a double room and breakfast. Rooms were traditionally European in proportion, with ‘assez d’éspace pour brandir un chat’, as the French NEVER say! Whilst modernised to the expected standards, it still retained old-fashioned stairwells with stained glass windows.

Breakfast was a cosmopolitan affair ranging from scrambled eggs to smelly cheeses, with toast, croissants and pain au chocolat thrown in for good measure. We hit the morning rush, which caused a brief hiatus in the efficient supply of cutlery. To my frustration, I couldn’t for the life of me remember what a spoon was in French.

Rooms have ‘proper’ wrought-iron balconies, and well-insulated French* windows (*what else?), which succeeded in keeping nearly all street-noise out.

WHERE WE ATE

I can divide this into two categories. Where we ate previously and where we ate this time.

On our previous gastronomic sally-forth, we were celebrating my mother-in-law’s 75th birthday by rewarding ourselves with a day out in Lille, complete with 1st class Eurostar tickets, funded by me, and lunch funded by my father-in-law. That both legs of this 4-person venture cost £400 was a coincidence, each thinking they’d got the better of the deal. We lunched at À L’Huîtrière, an essentially seafood restaurant acclaimed as Lille’s finest, in Rue Des Chats Bossus (Hunchbacked Cats Street, what kind of a name is that?). I freely admit that this was probably the best quality lunch I’ve ever had, but at £100 each, it bloody well should have been. The gaff certainly rises to the occasion, once you get past the unassuming door in the fish and lobster shop that fronts it, being all chandeliers and mirrors. Oh yes, the food’s good and they don’t mind if you spend 3½ hours eating it too. A great spot for pushing ‘le bateau’ out.

Back to reality, our eating this time was still on planet Earth, with prices to match. We had already pre-booked via the web, La Brasserie de la Paix just off the Place Du Théatre and tucked away in a corner, almost hidden by the verandas of other restaurants. Endearingly, I’m still getting e-mails in French from them, advising me of various saints’ day closures.

Bearing in mind it was Saturday night don’t expect to get ‘Paix’ and quiet, it really is quite boisterous and popular, not without good reason. The food here rocks with the atmosphere.

For starters, I had Vol-Au-Vent Ris De Veau (calves sweetbreads in a …..errr…I think it's called a vol-au-vent in English) whilst Ruth had Terrine de Lièvre - "waiter, there's a hare in my pâté!"

Main courses were more maritime, Ruth ordering ‘Waterzoï’ (pronounced ‘vatterzoy’ as far as I could tell). This was a selection of fresh fish served in a bowl with autumn vegetables. The fish included salmon, monkfish and rascasse (I looked this up, it’s scorpion fish, which leaves me none the wiser – funny, I always thought La Rascasse was a tight bend on the Monaco Grand Prix).

My main course was ‘Choucroute des Poissons’ – literally, a fish sauerkraut. For those not familiar, sauerkraut is shredded white cabbage, which has been marinated to the point of fermentation, so it’s more like sweet-and-sour, rather than pickled. Anyway, you get a mountain of it in the centre of your plate, and you end up eating it like spaghetti. The fish were similar to the selection on Ruth’s plate, except that I had some smoked haddock too and a large shrimp for garnish.

What the hell, it was delicious, as were the desserts, a Crême Brulée with the occasional framboise thrown in for good measure. A bill closer to £60 for the two of us felt more like money well spent, including a good quality Sancerre.

I’d definitely make a beeline for the place again – I hate the kind of place where you feel obliged to be quiet, and it has some lovely traditional local décor, being extensively mirrored and tiled. The waiters are fun, and efficient, struggling as they are to keep up with flip-flopping between French, English and Flemish/Dutch. They even understood Ruth’s French, and SHE’S from Norfolk!

As I explained, ‘Même en anglais, elle a un accent très bizarre, (moy booty).”

SHOPPING

Despite my aversion for the activity, the place being seemingly devoid of hi-fi, gadget and PC stores (at first glance, he he), I’m surprised I have much to say.

The timing of our visit was deliberate, to coincide with the Christmas Fair. This could be broken down into two clear sections. In the Grand’ Place (aka Place Général De Gaulle) were the ‘fairground’ attractions, whilst in the neighbouring Place Du Théatre, an area was set aside for stall holders selling gifts, seasonal foods, warming drinks and local specialities.

On the Sunday morning we took the Métro over to Wazemmes, in the southeast of the city to stroll around the street market. This centres around a large permanent food-hall, with Sunday marketers spilling out onto the surrounding roads. This is much more a people’s market, with fresh produce, iffy looking gadgets, ‘Rolex’s’ and cheap ‘genuine’ designer underwear side by side – even the stalls were covered with blue plastic tarpaulins held on with jumper-cable clips just to make us feel at home! The food stalls looked wonderful, even on a dull early December morning. Yes, why can’t we buy clementines still with those lovely dark green leaves attached? It’s just a little touch that says so much, when they are at home in the fruit bowl.

It was here that I saw my first truly hairy cheese that was still within its sell-by date.

Later on, and just when you are wondering if this is the only way to buy fresh goods in Lille, you go for a stroll in the city centre and find yet another Sunday food market, this time at the end of picturesque Rue De la Monnaie, in Place Du Concert. Somehow, the combination of the words ‘market’, rue’, and ‘end of money’ seem particularly apposite. This really is the place to get cheese, whereas the Wazemmes market was equally suitable for getting your mobile unlocked, buying ‘three lighters for 1€’ or having your name sculpted from silver wire.

Other shopping can be broken down into three categories. Larger stores, like ‘Printemps’ can be found in Rue Nationale, which has a kind of Oxford Street feel to it. You can stroll the lanes of the old quarter gawping at the watches, jewellery, expensive clothes (mind you, I’m the guy who thinks that anything not from Matalan is expensive) and stylish knick-knackery. The streets to aim for here are Rue Basse, Rue de La Monnaie and Rue des Chats Bossus. Beware though, quaint and cobbled they may be, but pedestrian precincts they’re not – cars still make a stroll slightly hazardous, as does the one thing I can’t forgive the Lillois for……….DOG CRAP!!

Whilst it would be unfair to say it’s everywhere, it is to be found sufficiently often to take the edge off gazing up at the Flemish architecture and walking at the same time. It’s particularly hazardous when towing two wheels of a small suitcase, since it’s not only your own feet you have to look out for.

The third shopping category, is the now almost obligatory indoor mall, in this case, the massive Euralille Centre next to the Lille-Europe station, and conveniently situated by the far end exit door to the platforms – only old hands know to go this way instead of following like sheep up from the platforms on the centrally-placed escalator.

Personally I’m not impressed, it being full of all the usual prestige goods, much like Brent Cross, the only sop to practicality being the large branch of Carrefour supermarket built into one end. Still, at least there’s no dog-muck in there, and I get cut loose for half an hour in Planète Saturn, a large electronics store! I’m happy to report that every time I find a ‘bargain’ in here, it’s cheaper at home from the internet, so the wallet gets to breathe again.

GENERAL STUFF

If I try to bracket Lille, I’d have to say it feels more like Brussels than Paris, and not just because of its Métro architecture. Somehow, cities that don’t have a large river at their heart feel different*. Like Brussels, it isn’t centred around a grand river, it’s closer to Brussels than Paris and the eating out has that ‘crossover’ into the Low Countries feel to it.

*The River Deûle skirts around the western flank of the city centre though.

I really like Lille – it’s easy and quick for a Londoner to get too, and once you subtract what you might have spent at home over a weekend, it doesn’t break the bank to be there either. I guess if you live near Ashford, Kent, it’s even quicker since some Eurostars stop there too.

I haven’t touched on Lille’s cultural side, since despite our best efforts, we’ve never been here for long enough – our one sop to educating ourselves failed miserably on Sunday when we tried to get into the Musée De L’Hospice Comtesse, a museum of Lille’s history in a former hospital founded by Jeanne de Flandres in 1237. Unfortunately, 12:37 is about when we arrived. Despite what the guidebook said about Sunday opening, it was closed for lunch!

Distance-wise for me, it’s not much further than Birmingham, and time-wise, it’s even nearer.

I know where I’d rather spend a weekend.

Incidentally, the return journey, door to door, was just 3 hours, including two tube trains from Waterloo to Hounslow Central, and a 1 mile walk rather than wait 30 mins for the next availible mini-cab - not bad eh?

Useful reading at a price to suit weekenders.

AA Essential Lille - ISBN 0-7495-2423-5 @ £ 3.99. The hotel's free map wasn't bad either!

At least now I know what I've missed, including the Bois De Boulogne (yes, Lille's got one too) a remarkable polygonal citadel dating back over 300 years, The Museum of Modern Art and The Fine Arts Museum. Oh well, it's not far, let's go again when the weather's better!

 

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