Lille is in the
Pas de Calais Nord region of France, near the Belgium border, 79 miles west of Antwerp, and 137 northeast of Paris.
This is the section of France referred to as
Flanders because it was part of Southern Netherlands (along with Belgium) until
1734 when France got possession. It is a large (pop 220,000) industrial city and a cultural center. Indeed in 2004
it was designated as the
European Capital of Culture.
We visited on our 2006 trip, stayed in a campground in a suburb and took
the very new and clean metro into the city center each of two days. The Metro station was just across from a Carrefour supermarket.
We drove the RV to the supermarket and parked in its lot on both days. The metro cars are quite new and clean and the
subway stop for the old town is very near the train station. The first day we walked around and visited the
Notre Dame de Treille
Cathedral and
St. Maurice Church. The Cathedral's
modern-looking facade is a reconstruction, finished in 1999.
The rest of the Cathedral is Gothic. The second day we walked around and visited the
Museum of Fine Arts. This museum is
huge (22,000 square meters), second in size to the Louvre, and its collection of many forms of art, many by well-known artists,
is worth visiting.
Our impression is that Lille is a tidy and elegant city with many handsome buildings. The old town center
is very easy to walk. The Opera and the Chamber of Commerce buildings are especially noteworthy. The former is simply classically
beautiful while the latter, also pleasant to look at, is a little unusual because it is huge and has a very tall center tower. Ordinarily,
Chambers of Commerce do not have such a bold appearance. You can see both of these buildings and others as well among our
city photos.
