HOW TO SPEND ONE DAY IN LILLE

Living in Paris means that I am constantly on the train or the metro. And a capital city has incredible links to all over the country, and our neighbours, which makes the possibility of a day trip all too tempting. This would be my first trip out of Paris, and my first solo trip as well, so I knew it needed to be somewhere close and just one day to test the waters a little bit. 

I settled on Lille, originally because of its proximity to Belgium, as I had planned to cross into Bruges (my favourite place in the world), but I ended up deciding to save that trip for another time and seeing what Lille has to offer. I was very pleasantly surprised by what I discovered! 

Lille is a beautiful town which exudes a Flemish feel from the architecture and layout. Having a main square (Grand Place) reminds me of Brussels and Bruges, and the colourful terraced buildings and cobbled streets are very quaint.

Lille is easily reachable, as it has great transport links into Paris (which only takes an hour) and the Eurostar goes direct to Lille, which makes it perfect for a city break out of the UK. I arrived into Lille Europe just before 9am and had the whole day there before an evening train back home. 

I will be posting a What I Ate in Lille guide, so for now, here's what I got up to:

Starting the day off

Walking around the city at 9am, I was surprised to find it was practically empty. It was a Saturday after all - the locals must have been taking advantage of a weekend lie-in. I noticed that a lot of the shops and sites didn't open until 9.30 or 10am, so I headed for breakfast, and then stopped off at the tourist office for a map. I spoke to a lovely lady about what sites she recommended seeing, and she even circled them on the map and gave me estimations of long the walk would be. She, along with most of their employees, was multilingual, so don't be too nervous to go in on account of a language barrier! 

Pretty beautiful for a tourist office; it also has a little exhibition about the history of the city

Head for the Beffroi 

As per the instruction from the lovely lady in the tourist office, I headed for the Beffroi (the Belfry) while it was still sunny, about a ten minute walk from the main square. It was extremely easy to find - there is a tall clock tower in the centre of town, and then the belfry is a little further away, which is visible above rooftops. 

I walked towards it, and found it easily enough. It's attached to the Town Hall (Hotel de Ville) and to get in you need to walk round the left side of the Town Hall and there's a door with a relatively non-descript sign on it. To get in I had to ring the bell and say that I wanted to climb the belfry into the telecom. I had read that it was difficult to get into, and that sort of explained it. 

The belfry rates differ depending on season, but there's always a youth tariff which made my visit well priced in my opinion. To get to the top, you must climb the first 100 stairs yourself (4 floors), and then there's a lift to get to the panorama levels. It gives perfect views over the city and a beautiful view of the Porte de Paris (Door to Paris) just in front of the Town Hall. 

Walking towards Vieux Lille

I walked along the straight main road back into the centre of town, passing some beautiful sights on the way. The Eglise Saint-Maurice was beautiful:

I walked through the town centre towards the Notre-Dame de la Treille cathedral. The church was never finished to its original blueprints because of war, so when they rebuilt the front face, they made it out of marble. It was such an interesting and enormous church, and free to go inside which is definitely worth a look. 

Around the corner is the the Musée de l'Hospice Comtesse. I came across this museum by accident as I walked out of the shop opposite and saw the musée sign. This little museum used to be a hospice where nuns would look practise themselves, and later look after those in need in Lille. The tickets were very cheap (€3.60 adults, €2.60 concessions), so I went for it. 

The museum itself is really tiny, just two floors and in one building, but it was interesting the original furnishings and I was surprised to find an art gallery on the second floor with artefacts and paintings from the period. It's an unexpected and unique museum, that would be worth visiting if you have walked up through towards Viewx Lille. Besides, the courtyard would make a perfect Instagram background, just saying. 

Always on the lookout for cute animals

I stopped for pastries (!) and then walked West towards Lille Zoo! I love visiting the zoo, so when I found out that Lille had it's very own, I knew I would have to come. The walk took me between 10-1 minutes, and the zoo is located just by the entrance to a big park which houses a funfair and the Citadel of Lille (which I was told was not accessible to visitors). This small zoo had good number of cute animals, and some unexpected ones like Rhinos, a Red Panda and Zebras. At €4 it was worth the money.  

On my way back towards town I walked past something with the sign 'Le Waf; Café Chiens'. A dog café? What does that even mean? I honestly imagined it being a super fancy groomers, so I crossed the road to investigate and was more than happy to discover it was a café where you can stay for a drink and pet cute dogs! Day made! More about this in my Lille food post, but I felt this was an important place to visit on your trip. 

 Back in the centre

Walking back into the centre of town, I took my time to soak in the beautiful sights, such as the clock tower, and the centre of commerce with its stunning ceiling (reminds me of Galeries Lafayette in Paris!) and the Opera house, where I sat on its steps and watched the world go by with a picturesque view of the Vieille Bourse. 

The Opéra house

This beautifully grand building is the Vieille Bourse, the old stock exchange. I have only just found out that you can go inside and there's a courtyard, so definitely keep your eyes open for a doorway on the sides of the building. While I'm kind of gutted to have not gone inside, it was still stunning from the outside. 

Hitting the shops

I'd decided to head to the shops once I was done in the centre, and when the first few drops of rain fell, I knew I'd made the right choice. I don't know how this wasn't mentioned on any of the blogs I'd read before my trip, but Lille has incredible shopping! 

The town centre has a perfect balance of unique and cute shops and larger brands such as Lush, Sephora and Zara. My favourite finds were Tiger (quite a few in the UK, but it's not everywhere in France) and Undiz (a gorgeous loungewear and underwear shop). But my ultimate favourite was Søstrene Grene, a crafty homeware and everything else sort of shop - do not leave without coming here (I eve checked if they had a Paris location while I was right there in the shop, seriously did not want to leave). 

I made one last stop at Euralille, an expansive, stylish and well-packed shopping centre nestled next to Lille Europe. And as my train station was right next to it, I had no choice but to stay for a little shopping... Lots of great finds here including Primark, Hema (my fave!), Sephora, Mango and food outlets too. 

Back to Paris

A 30-second walk to the station saw me saying goodbye to this little town, for now. I could summarise my trip with the words quaint, adorable and 'pleasantly surprised', and let's face it - those are all words we could do more of in our lives. Lille is definitely worth a visit.