Past Trips: Lille - March 2011

This time last year, I took my first foreign trip in about 3 years to the city of Lille in France. I'd found some fairly reasonable fares from Exeter to Lille by train with Eurostar, I also managed to find a fairly reasonably priced room in the Hotel B&B in Euralille, just two Metro stops from Lille Europe station. So I booked up for two nights in mid March.

My trip didn't get off to a good start, I'd just boarded the train from Exeter Central to St David's (Exeter's main station) when I realised I'd left my camera at home. Luckily I'd left enough time to get a taxi back to my house, grab the camera then back to the station before the train to London. Because of works on the main line to London my train was diverted via a much slower route (taking the Waterloo route to Yeovil and then cutting up to rejoin the normal route at Castle Cary) which added about an hour onto the journey. All was going well until the train caught up a late running stopping service at Slough and then being held at the junction for Heathrow to let the Airport Express go in front. arriving at Paddington about 20 mins late.

Heading through England towards London

On arriving at Paddington I made a dash for the bridge to the Hammersmith and City line station (Paddington has two underground stations, the H&C has platforms in the mainline station, other lines have a seperate station outside the main entrance), only to find it barriered off, so headed for the main station, which was also shut, just the Bakerloo Line connecting with the H&C at Baker Street. So I squeezed onto the Bakerloo, and dashed up to the H&C platforms only to find a 10 minute wait for the next train. By this time it was getting close to 15 minutes before my Eurostar departed, check-in would have closed (officially closes 30 mins prior to departure for 2nd class passengers like myself) and I was expecting to have to wait for the next Eurostar that stopped at Lille. Well I arrived at Kings Cross/St Pancras station, ran towards the Eurostar check-in, showed my ticket to and told to run! Security pushed my stuff straight through the X-Ray and the French Border Police saw me running up with an open passport and waved me straight through. I made it onto the train with about 2 mins to spare before departure!

The journey to Lille was very quick and I took the opportunity to relax. But not for long as when I alighted I realised I couldn't find my phone. Oh Dear! So I thought I'd try and find the Hotel then see what I could do. So I took the metro to Grand Palais, and then spent about 20 minutes struggling to find the hotel. Turned out some wag had turned their cable tied sign around. Still the room was nice, even if the view was only good if you liked Autoroutes and TGVs (it overlooked the ringroad and the railway sidings). The good news was that I'd buried my phone deep in my bag rather then in my pocket.

I spent the rest of the day nosing around town and admiring the local architecture and fashion (no Jack Wills and the only Uggs were on a tramp!), the French are so stylish even the chavs looked smart! The city has a very Flemish feel to the architecture, especially around the town square. Though it was spoilt a little by construction work. The city centre was bustling with shoppers and I will admit to getting lost in some of the winding narrow streets of the old town.

(if you are wondering where everyone is this was taken on Sunday)

In the evening perused the guide book with a view to finding a good night out. The book suggested Wazemmes, so I caught the Metro to Wazemmes station to find the place deserted apart from a couple of gangs. I started to feel very unsafe and decided to beat a hasty retreat.

Gare Lille Flandres

On my second day I discovered how little of France was open on a Sunday! My initial plan was to find a train over the border to Kortrijk in Belgium (which a friend had suggested visiting) for the morning and then exploring Lille in the afternoon, but things conspired against me - I got to the station to find the next train was due very soon and the queue for the ticket office was longer then the time before the train was due out, then chose to go back into the city and forgot about the whole idea!

Porte de Paris

In the end I decided to have a good walk around town admiring the architecture and visited the Palais de Beaux-Arts (the largest French gallery outside of Paris - only the Louvre is bigger). Beaux-Arts is well worth a visit, it's crowd free and has some fantastically detailed models of fortified towns in Northern France dating from the 17th century.

Model of Ath

The square outside Beaux-Arts was being used as the venue for a roller-skate race, which I watched the last lap of before walking though the centre and along the Quai de Wault. I then checked out the city hall before seeking food. In the evening I went out and took a few photos of the city landmarks at night.

Opera House

The City Hall tower

The journey back was very smooth with no mad rushes and I was back in Exeter about 4 hours after leaving Lille (with a 45 minute wait at Paddington) - I really want to go again! The French have a reputation for rudeness that I didn't see at all, everyone was polite and forgiving of my broken French (and fall back of "Parlez-Vous Anglais") - even the Transport Police hit squad who decided to blitz one of the Metro stations for ticketless travelers. My regret was that I didn't manage the borderhop to Kortrijk,

Back at St Pancras