We caught a morning train from Paris Gare du Nord. We had booked tickets on the French TGV (the high speed train) and also reserved seats (which I think is compulsory on TGV-operated services). The TGV we were to travel on was bound for Calais, and we had to wait behind the barrier to the platform until the train was ready for us to board. Another point when using French railways - you MUST stamp your ticket in the platform machine or risk a fine. On this occasion there were staff on hand to make sure everyone did just that.
We boarded the train, and we both had a window seat, which was nice. I made some video through the train window as we left Paris and picked up speed as we entered the French countryside.
The journey took one hour, and we left the train at Lille Europe. Lille is close to the Belgian-French border, and I thought that maybe we would see some Belgian trains, but they go into the other station - Lille Flandres. Lille Europe is the Eurostar terminal. We were surprised to see signs in French and Dutch - Lille has been part of France for over 300 years, before that it was part of Flanders.
Lille is also known as the birthplace of Charles de Gaulle (Britiain's greatest ally as VC10 always says
) but that is not relevant to this report.It was a hot, sunny day and we walked into the city centre. What struck me about Lille was how similar to Belgian towns it was, with narrow buildings and also the step gables which I just love.
This shows a view of the walk into the city centre from Lille Europe.
We browsed around the city for a while, and I made loads of video. We were spoilt for choice over somewhere to eat - we had looked on the menu of a seafood restaurant, but too many of their dishes contained beans so we had to eat somewhere else. Just like Belgium, we saw many places selling mussels and chips, and even a Cafe Leffe! Now this was my kind of French town!
A pavement cafe.
We didn't eat outside because we always seemed to be plagued by flies and wasps when we do, so we opted for an indoor restaurant and had some lamb chops.
The main focal point of Lille, like Belgian towns, is the market square.
A view of the Grand Place.
This square had the step gables again, and a white building topped with a golden sculpture on the top gable. This can be seen at the far end of the photo. We saw nice shops in Lille - good chocolate shops, some nice food shops and a shop which sold Belgian beers.
Lille shops.
VC10 had been complaining about her shoes, so we spent a while looking in shoe shops, but it was too hot to hang around inside.
One of the main shopping attractions in Lille is EuraLille, close to Lille Europe station. This is a large shopping mall which also has places to eat. We tried to get a meal in here but couldn't find what we wanted and so bought some beautiful organic sandwiches in a supermarket.
The shops in EuraLille were very good, but there were some unsavoury characters hanging around and pestering people so we didn't sit around for too long. After eating our sandwiches we headed back to Lille Europe to wait for our TGV back to Paris. Whilst waiting for our train, we saw a Eurostar hurtle through at top speed, and that was a sight indeed!
The TGV back to Paris was quite busy, but we had window seats again and really enjoyed the ride. We got back to Paris in the evening after a very enjoyable day.
I really recommend Lille for a visit, personally I prefer the place to Paris because it is not so touristy and the buildings are more photogenic, like Belgian ones
.