48 hours in Lille
Lille. Probably one of your “we must go there” places, as you pause briefly on the Eurostar platform, waiting to continue your journey to Paris or further afield. The fact that it’s a mere 1 hour 20 minutes away tempted me in to book another 48 hour trip away to get my fix of the French.
Travel; Eurostar from London St. Pancras into Lille Europe station
Hotel; Hotel Carlton situated on Place du Theatre, Lille is pretty small so it was barely a 10 minute walk from the station, yet was right in the middle of Lille. Massive rooms, great location, a bit dated but in a good way - perfect for a few days to explore Lille.
DAY 1
AM - Time to explore, coffee at Tamper
LUNCH - Vieux de la Vieille
PM - Lille cathedral, more coffee at Cafeine, beer at Capsule
DINNER - La Petit Cour
DAY 2
AM - Coffee at Coffee Makers, Palais des Beaux Arts
LUNCH - Creperie de la Vieille Bourse
PM - Shopping! Cheese from Philippe Olivier, bakeries, chocolate and beers
DINNER - Apperitif at L’Art‘doise, dinner at Le Barbue d’anvers
Day 1
AM
A city in northern France in French Flanders, close to the border with Belgium. It’s had a fairly recent transformation into a cultural and commercial hub, and is slowly gaining a reputation as a great place for a weekend away - mainly French tourists mind you. Highlights of the city include the beautiful old town, steeped in its Flemish history, 3 art museums, stylish shopping, a traditional food scene and a great selection of bars to try their great local beers. Itineries could include the Citadelle, Vielle Bourse, Wazemmes, Palais des beaux Arts, La Piscine Musee d’Art et d’Industrie, Musee de l’Hospice Comtesse, Musee d’Art Moderne, Maison Natale de Charles de Gaulle, and of course the Cathedrale Notre-Dame-de-la-Treille.
Stepping onboard in London, a quick journey under the English Channel and you arrive in Lille…it is nice to detour away from busy airports, stressful flights and long queues once in a while.
Our holiday began with a quick espresso et croissant in Lilles main square - Grand Place , it’s very easy to navigate round Lille with every road seeming to lead back here. Once we had suitably blended in with the locals, we meandered our way down little streets lined with French designers, bakeries, chocolate shops and many many restaurants and cafes. We found ourselves on a street which we ended up spending a lot of time on in the next 2 days - Rue des Vieux Murs, to grab a coffee at Tamper! Espresso Bar. This was our first of many visits to one of Lilles more “premium” coffee shops, it was like being back in London seeing the many coffee experts in a relaxed Scandinavian style coffee shop, and being confused by words like “aeropess, piston, siphon… But man was it a good coffee - they also had a lovely selection of cakes, and have a short menu for those staying on for lunch.
Lunch
We carried on down Rue des Vieux Murs to find a suitable place to eat. It had just gone 12 (we had been up very early) but the restaurant Vieux de la Vieille only had a few empty tables outside - always a good sign. We took a seat, pretended we know what our lovely waiter was saying to us, managed to order beer and get the menus - we were off to a strong start. The beers came, along with English menus (obviously) and we browsed over a big selection of dishes. We decided on 2 local options, our first choice was the “Welsh au Maroilles” which every table seemed to be enjoying. The Welsh part is in reference to Welsh rarebit and Maroilles is a very strong local cheese, so a French variation of cheese on toast basically: Toasted bread in a dish with ham on top, topped with a melted cheese and beer roux, serve it with frites on the side and you have a complete meal. It was absolutely amazing of course. Our second choice was “Le Coeur des Flandres” - another local dish, this was a beautifully thin crispy pastry tart, with a bottom layer of minced pork, bacon lardons and onion, and the top being a being a thick layer of pretty sweet apple puree. This one was pretty bizarre if I’m honest, but again really enjoyable and paired with a local blanche beer, made for a really good first lunch in Lille.
PM
We walked off lunch by visiting the cathedral, a few steps around the corner. Work started in 1854 and was completed pretty recently in 1999. It’s in a 13th century Gothic style using Reims, Amiens and Chartres as examples. It’s a bit of a miss-match, but there is some interesting bits and pieces to be found, it’s modern art mixed with gothic styles and can come across quite cluttered.
Soon it was time for another caffeine fix, and where better than Cafeine, on our soon to be favourite street Rue des Vieux Murs. It seems like the coffee culture has really taken off here; having a similar selection as Tamper in a minimally decorated, bright white room and really taking time and effort on your coffee - their cookies are also really good for an afternoon snack too.
Time went by until it was acceptable to have some pre drinks before dinner. Just across the road (Lille is very compact!) we entered Capsule, where people had already started sprawling onto the pavement. We luckily got the last seats and pondered over the beer selection. This place was really cool, and it was nice to get a wide selection and step away from the strong Belgium style local beers here. The place wouldn't stick out in London, and the craft beer selection was really interesting. We enjoyed a sour wheat saison and a hoppy pale ale - both local but more suited to our spoilt London beer palate. Enjoy with a whole local salami, on a chopping board complete with steak knife.
Dinner
Dinner wasn’t planned, so we wandered around the old town area until we found somewhere which took our fancy. We stumbled across La Petit Cour on Rue du Cure Saint-Etienne. It was a really cool restaurant; half of it was a converted indoor courtyard area which was very atmospheric, and they also have outdoor tables round the back. The menu has a mix of Belgian and French influences, which were LP record covers which I thought was a really good idea.
A bottle of pinot noir was quickly decided on as we nibbled on black olive tapenade and crusty bread drizzled with garlic oil. Straight to mains, I went for the carbonnade de boeuf on the waiters suggestion. A local Flemish dish of beef stew, made with brown sugar, gingerbread and more of that local beer. More chips, a sprig of curly parsley and a cherry tomato; I was slowly racking up my 5 a day. The stew itself was delicious, rich and comforting, with the ginger adding a real warmth to the dish, but still left room for dessert…
I’ve started a habit whilst on holiday, by ordering dessert and not knowing/asking what it is. This has resulted with some great desserts, unknown ingredients and even an unexpected cheese board which didn't quite satisfy my sweet tooth. On this evening I went for the Dame Blanche, which turned out to be vanilla ice cream, topped with squirty cream, and a jug of melted chocolate on the side - nothing adventurous sadly, but that’s not to say it hit the spot!
Day 2
AM
We started the day with our last coffee in Lille at the Coffee Makers, which is situated en route to the Palais des Beaux Arts so fit in nicely with our plans. Great coffee once again, paired with a croissant made for a worthy trip.
Situated on Place de la République, with an entrance fee of €7, but make sure you use your Eurostar ticket as it gets you 2 for 1; a real bargain. It’s dedicated to fine arts, modern art and antiques and is definitely worth spending a few hours going round. The museum itself opened in 1809 and was first housed in a church confiscated from the Recollets before being transferred to the city town hall; a Belle Epoque style building. Look out for work by Raphael, Donatello, Van Dyck, Rembrandt, Goya, Tissot, Corot, Delacroix, Rubens, Rodin to name a few.
A few certain works to look out for include;
Antiquities, Middle Ages and Renaissance
Feast of Herod, Donatello (vers 1435) on marble
17th-century paintings
Descent from the Cross, Rubens (circa 1617)
18th- and 19th-century paintings
Belisarius begging alms, Jacques-Louis David, oil on canvas (1781)
The Cows, Vincent van Gogh (1890)
20th-century paintings
Houses of Parliament, London, Claude Monet (1904)
They also have a pretty interesting collection of “plans-reliefs” from the local area too.
Lunch
We made our way back to the Grand Place (central square) and onto Vieille Bourse. This is the old stock exchange built in 1653 in response to the persistent ill health of the bankers and merchants of Lille - trading had previously taken place in the unprotected open air at the Fontaine-au-Change, resulting in regular bouts of flus, colds etc. 24 privately purchased, ornately decorated, identical houses surround a courtyard, with entrances via the 4 arches of each side. Nowadays it’s home to a number of second hand bookseller stalls (great to have a delve in) and a band of chess players in tournament, which it seems the locals take very seriously.
On the outside of the Vielle Bourse was are stop off for lunch - Creperie de la Vielle Bourse. It’s a tiny little restaurant, with about 7 small tables crammed into the ground floor, same again on the top floor, the kitchen downstairs (you can hear the chef banging whenever food’s ready) and a fair few tables outside. And 1 guy front of house. He literally didn't stop running the whole time we were there, from sitting people, getting there orders, running upstairs to serve peoples drinks, downstairs to collect food, make a coffee….he was absolutely soaking after the lunch time rush was over! Onto the food though, their biggest seller is obviously their crepes but they also do tasty looking pizzas - but we were there for what they do best. The selection of fillings is pretty vast, but we went simple and shared the Laerys; emmental, asparagus, mushroom, cream and garlic butter on top) and the Chèvre noix; (goats cheese and walnuts). All freshly prepared using “farine de ble noir de Bretagne IGP” - a buckwheat flour from Brittany, so a great place for gluten free people too. The flour of choice gave the crepes a bit more texture, and the fillings were both good choices. Portions were massive, prices were cheap - I highly recommend this place for a quick lunch.
PM
The afternoon was spent shopping, which Lille is pretty well know for, with its many streets lined with the latest designer labels, trends and styles. But to be honest, I was there for the food, so we spent hours working our way through bakeries, chocolate, cheese and beer shops. Most of the places we visited were on Rue Esquermoise so head there for and afternoon on exploring.
Meert was my top recommendation which you will easily locate by the hoards of people outside. It's really beautiful, and the most upmarket bakery you will find in Lille, their waffles were said to be a favourite of Charles de Gaulle. Brier for its selection of breads is also great, Arthur & co. for its croissants and small snacks, Alex Croquet for its bread and Aux Merveilleux which has 12 shops dotted around France started out here, as did the well known chain Paul.
For the chocoholics among you, you will be pleased to hear that I also planned my own chocolate tour of Lille, my stop offs included Chocolate Passion, Jeff de Bruge, Au Chat Bleu, Trogneaux Chocolat, Meert, Guillaume Vincent Chocolatier finishing at Benoit Chocolatier. Top marks went to Jeff de Bruge for his take on Ferrero Roche, and also to Benoit Chocolatier for its dark chocolate florentine and its selection of “Les tablettes”.
I’m also a big cheese lover and wanted to bring back some Maroilles (which seemed to linger in our Eurostar carriage quite prominently). We visited the famous Philippe Olivier fromagerie for a great selection of local cheese, plus Welsh cheddar!
One more great place to check out is L'Abbaye des Saveurs, which is a fantastic beer shop on Rue des Vieux Murs. It has many local beers, in all types of styles, and many from further afield too - great to stock up for yourself, or for presents for beer lovers back home.
Dinner
For pre-dinner drinks we stayed on Rue des Vieux Murs for a glass of champagne. There’s 3 wine bars right next to each other here, but our one of choice was L’Art’doise which is part wine bar part art gallery. It has a large selection by the glass, a great menu for small dishes (and larger one if you end up staying on longer) and great friendly service.
For dinner we chose Barbue d’Anvers, a local favourite in Lille. The entrance feels more like the back door which doesn't make it seem the most welcoming of places. But go in, past the empty bar, up the stairs lined with deer heads, under the ceiling adorned with fancy chandeliers, and you'll get to a large buzzy restaurant, decorated with all kinds of traditionally old fashioned French ornaments.
Sole with poached eggs and sauce vierge looked great, and my perfectly rare onglet with bernaise and more frites was just what I needed after a long day walking all over Lille. There beer list is great with a really varied selection; it’s easy to spend a long lazy evening there.
Lille was a fantastic city break to spend 48 hours in - look out for deals on the Eurostar website, and if your flexible with dates/times you can get some really good prices! Go hungry, and with plenty of room in your suitcase!
Travel; Eurostar from London St. Pancras into Lille Europe station
Hotel; Hotel Carlton situated on Place du Theatre, Lille is pretty small so it was barely a 10 minute walk from the station, yet was right in the middle of Lille. Massive rooms, great location, a bit dated but in a good way - perfect for a few days to explore Lille.
DAY 1
AM - Time to explore, coffee at Tamper
LUNCH - Vieux de la Vieille
PM - Lille cathedral, more coffee at Cafeine, beer at Capsule
DINNER - La Petit Cour
DAY 2
AM - Coffee at Coffee Makers, Palais des Beaux Arts
LUNCH - Creperie de la Vieille Bourse
PM - Shopping! Cheese from Philippe Olivier, bakeries, chocolate and beers
DINNER - Apperitif at L’Art‘doise, dinner at Le Barbue d’anvers
Day 1
AM
A city in northern France in French Flanders, close to the border with Belgium. It’s had a fairly recent transformation into a cultural and commercial hub, and is slowly gaining a reputation as a great place for a weekend away - mainly French tourists mind you. Highlights of the city include the beautiful old town, steeped in its Flemish history, 3 art museums, stylish shopping, a traditional food scene and a great selection of bars to try their great local beers. Itineries could include the Citadelle, Vielle Bourse, Wazemmes, Palais des beaux Arts, La Piscine Musee d’Art et d’Industrie, Musee de l’Hospice Comtesse, Musee d’Art Moderne, Maison Natale de Charles de Gaulle, and of course the Cathedrale Notre-Dame-de-la-Treille.
Stepping onboard in London, a quick journey under the English Channel and you arrive in Lille…it is nice to detour away from busy airports, stressful flights and long queues once in a while.
Our holiday began with a quick espresso et croissant in Lilles main square - Grand Place , it’s very easy to navigate round Lille with every road seeming to lead back here. Once we had suitably blended in with the locals, we meandered our way down little streets lined with French designers, bakeries, chocolate shops and many many restaurants and cafes. We found ourselves on a street which we ended up spending a lot of time on in the next 2 days - Rue des Vieux Murs, to grab a coffee at Tamper! Espresso Bar. This was our first of many visits to one of Lilles more “premium” coffee shops, it was like being back in London seeing the many coffee experts in a relaxed Scandinavian style coffee shop, and being confused by words like “aeropess, piston, siphon… But man was it a good coffee - they also had a lovely selection of cakes, and have a short menu for those staying on for lunch.
Lunch
We carried on down Rue des Vieux Murs to find a suitable place to eat. It had just gone 12 (we had been up very early) but the restaurant Vieux de la Vieille only had a few empty tables outside - always a good sign. We took a seat, pretended we know what our lovely waiter was saying to us, managed to order beer and get the menus - we were off to a strong start. The beers came, along with English menus (obviously) and we browsed over a big selection of dishes. We decided on 2 local options, our first choice was the “Welsh au Maroilles” which every table seemed to be enjoying. The Welsh part is in reference to Welsh rarebit and Maroilles is a very strong local cheese, so a French variation of cheese on toast basically: Toasted bread in a dish with ham on top, topped with a melted cheese and beer roux, serve it with frites on the side and you have a complete meal. It was absolutely amazing of course. Our second choice was “Le Coeur des Flandres” - another local dish, this was a beautifully thin crispy pastry tart, with a bottom layer of minced pork, bacon lardons and onion, and the top being a being a thick layer of pretty sweet apple puree. This one was pretty bizarre if I’m honest, but again really enjoyable and paired with a local blanche beer, made for a really good first lunch in Lille.
PM
We walked off lunch by visiting the cathedral, a few steps around the corner. Work started in 1854 and was completed pretty recently in 1999. It’s in a 13th century Gothic style using Reims, Amiens and Chartres as examples. It’s a bit of a miss-match, but there is some interesting bits and pieces to be found, it’s modern art mixed with gothic styles and can come across quite cluttered.
Soon it was time for another caffeine fix, and where better than Cafeine, on our soon to be favourite street Rue des Vieux Murs. It seems like the coffee culture has really taken off here; having a similar selection as Tamper in a minimally decorated, bright white room and really taking time and effort on your coffee - their cookies are also really good for an afternoon snack too.
Time went by until it was acceptable to have some pre drinks before dinner. Just across the road (Lille is very compact!) we entered Capsule, where people had already started sprawling onto the pavement. We luckily got the last seats and pondered over the beer selection. This place was really cool, and it was nice to get a wide selection and step away from the strong Belgium style local beers here. The place wouldn't stick out in London, and the craft beer selection was really interesting. We enjoyed a sour wheat saison and a hoppy pale ale - both local but more suited to our spoilt London beer palate. Enjoy with a whole local salami, on a chopping board complete with steak knife.
Dinner
Dinner wasn’t planned, so we wandered around the old town area until we found somewhere which took our fancy. We stumbled across La Petit Cour on Rue du Cure Saint-Etienne. It was a really cool restaurant; half of it was a converted indoor courtyard area which was very atmospheric, and they also have outdoor tables round the back. The menu has a mix of Belgian and French influences, which were LP record covers which I thought was a really good idea.
A bottle of pinot noir was quickly decided on as we nibbled on black olive tapenade and crusty bread drizzled with garlic oil. Straight to mains, I went for the carbonnade de boeuf on the waiters suggestion. A local Flemish dish of beef stew, made with brown sugar, gingerbread and more of that local beer. More chips, a sprig of curly parsley and a cherry tomato; I was slowly racking up my 5 a day. The stew itself was delicious, rich and comforting, with the ginger adding a real warmth to the dish, but still left room for dessert…
I’ve started a habit whilst on holiday, by ordering dessert and not knowing/asking what it is. This has resulted with some great desserts, unknown ingredients and even an unexpected cheese board which didn't quite satisfy my sweet tooth. On this evening I went for the Dame Blanche, which turned out to be vanilla ice cream, topped with squirty cream, and a jug of melted chocolate on the side - nothing adventurous sadly, but that’s not to say it hit the spot!
Day 2
AM
We started the day with our last coffee in Lille at the Coffee Makers, which is situated en route to the Palais des Beaux Arts so fit in nicely with our plans. Great coffee once again, paired with a croissant made for a worthy trip.
Situated on Place de la République, with an entrance fee of €7, but make sure you use your Eurostar ticket as it gets you 2 for 1; a real bargain. It’s dedicated to fine arts, modern art and antiques and is definitely worth spending a few hours going round. The museum itself opened in 1809 and was first housed in a church confiscated from the Recollets before being transferred to the city town hall; a Belle Epoque style building. Look out for work by Raphael, Donatello, Van Dyck, Rembrandt, Goya, Tissot, Corot, Delacroix, Rubens, Rodin to name a few.
A few certain works to look out for include;
Antiquities, Middle Ages and Renaissance
Feast of Herod, Donatello (vers 1435) on marble
17th-century paintings
Descent from the Cross, Rubens (circa 1617)
18th- and 19th-century paintings
Belisarius begging alms, Jacques-Louis David, oil on canvas (1781)
The Cows, Vincent van Gogh (1890)
20th-century paintings
Houses of Parliament, London, Claude Monet (1904)
They also have a pretty interesting collection of “plans-reliefs” from the local area too.
Lunch
We made our way back to the Grand Place (central square) and onto Vieille Bourse. This is the old stock exchange built in 1653 in response to the persistent ill health of the bankers and merchants of Lille - trading had previously taken place in the unprotected open air at the Fontaine-au-Change, resulting in regular bouts of flus, colds etc. 24 privately purchased, ornately decorated, identical houses surround a courtyard, with entrances via the 4 arches of each side. Nowadays it’s home to a number of second hand bookseller stalls (great to have a delve in) and a band of chess players in tournament, which it seems the locals take very seriously.
On the outside of the Vielle Bourse was are stop off for lunch - Creperie de la Vielle Bourse. It’s a tiny little restaurant, with about 7 small tables crammed into the ground floor, same again on the top floor, the kitchen downstairs (you can hear the chef banging whenever food’s ready) and a fair few tables outside. And 1 guy front of house. He literally didn't stop running the whole time we were there, from sitting people, getting there orders, running upstairs to serve peoples drinks, downstairs to collect food, make a coffee….he was absolutely soaking after the lunch time rush was over! Onto the food though, their biggest seller is obviously their crepes but they also do tasty looking pizzas - but we were there for what they do best. The selection of fillings is pretty vast, but we went simple and shared the Laerys; emmental, asparagus, mushroom, cream and garlic butter on top) and the Chèvre noix; (goats cheese and walnuts). All freshly prepared using “farine de ble noir de Bretagne IGP” - a buckwheat flour from Brittany, so a great place for gluten free people too. The flour of choice gave the crepes a bit more texture, and the fillings were both good choices. Portions were massive, prices were cheap - I highly recommend this place for a quick lunch.
PM
The afternoon was spent shopping, which Lille is pretty well know for, with its many streets lined with the latest designer labels, trends and styles. But to be honest, I was there for the food, so we spent hours working our way through bakeries, chocolate, cheese and beer shops. Most of the places we visited were on Rue Esquermoise so head there for and afternoon on exploring.
Meert was my top recommendation which you will easily locate by the hoards of people outside. It's really beautiful, and the most upmarket bakery you will find in Lille, their waffles were said to be a favourite of Charles de Gaulle. Brier for its selection of breads is also great, Arthur & co. for its croissants and small snacks, Alex Croquet for its bread and Aux Merveilleux which has 12 shops dotted around France started out here, as did the well known chain Paul.
For the chocoholics among you, you will be pleased to hear that I also planned my own chocolate tour of Lille, my stop offs included Chocolate Passion, Jeff de Bruge, Au Chat Bleu, Trogneaux Chocolat, Meert, Guillaume Vincent Chocolatier finishing at Benoit Chocolatier. Top marks went to Jeff de Bruge for his take on Ferrero Roche, and also to Benoit Chocolatier for its dark chocolate florentine and its selection of “Les tablettes”.
I’m also a big cheese lover and wanted to bring back some Maroilles (which seemed to linger in our Eurostar carriage quite prominently). We visited the famous Philippe Olivier fromagerie for a great selection of local cheese, plus Welsh cheddar!
One more great place to check out is L'Abbaye des Saveurs, which is a fantastic beer shop on Rue des Vieux Murs. It has many local beers, in all types of styles, and many from further afield too - great to stock up for yourself, or for presents for beer lovers back home.
Dinner
For pre-dinner drinks we stayed on Rue des Vieux Murs for a glass of champagne. There’s 3 wine bars right next to each other here, but our one of choice was L’Art’doise which is part wine bar part art gallery. It has a large selection by the glass, a great menu for small dishes (and larger one if you end up staying on longer) and great friendly service.
For dinner we chose Barbue d’Anvers, a local favourite in Lille. The entrance feels more like the back door which doesn't make it seem the most welcoming of places. But go in, past the empty bar, up the stairs lined with deer heads, under the ceiling adorned with fancy chandeliers, and you'll get to a large buzzy restaurant, decorated with all kinds of traditionally old fashioned French ornaments.
Sole with poached eggs and sauce vierge looked great, and my perfectly rare onglet with bernaise and more frites was just what I needed after a long day walking all over Lille. There beer list is great with a really varied selection; it’s easy to spend a long lazy evening there.
Lille was a fantastic city break to spend 48 hours in - look out for deals on the Eurostar website, and if your flexible with dates/times you can get some really good prices! Go hungry, and with plenty of room in your suitcase!
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