The original Municipal Theater in Lille was built from 1784 to 1787 and served its purpose for over a century, until it burned to the ground in a mysterious fire on the night of April 5-6, 1903. After five years of discussion, the city council held an architectural competition to Read More …
Unlike the tourist offices in Toulon, Avignon and Marseille, which sell their tour tickets in advance and stop selling when the tour is full, the tourist office in Lille simply told us to come at three in the afternoon and pay on the spot. Since it was an unexpectedly warm Read More …
My plan was that I would take a German InterCityExpress train (ICE) from Frankfurt by way of Cologne to Brussels, change at Brussels North Station for Kortrijk and then change at Kortrijk for Lille-Flandres. I booked this on the excellent Deutsche Bahn (German Railway) website. If the German train service Read More …
Like the rest of France, Lille has a long tradition of bicycle racing but is still under-developed when it comes to the use of bicycles as a means of daily transportation. In 2013 I was surprised to learn that only 2 % of journeys in Lille were done by bicycle, Read More …
Historically, Lille was known as one of the most often besieged cities in western Europe. It belonged at various times to the County of Flanders, the Kingdom of France, the State of Burgundy, the Holy Roman Empire and the Spanish Netherlands. After besieging, conquering and occupying Lille in 1667, the Read More …