A Lille City Break
Okay, Now Where? Lille, France
Last month, I spontaneously traveled to Lille, France intending to practice French. In 2022, I made a similar last-minute trip to Antwerp, although the goal of that trip was to motivate myself to finish my dissertation rather than to practice Dutch.
Only 80 minutes from London’s St Pancras Station, Lille was the perfect spot for a solo holiday. While it’s the fourth biggest city in France, it is perfectly doable on a weekend. There’s plenty to see without feeling like you have to rush through museums or make decisions about what to see and not to see. If you’re a fan of art and architecture, I’d highly recommend a trip if you’re looking for an easy getaway.
Itinerary:
Day 1 (half-day)
Arrive / Pick up City Pass
Visit the Palais des Beaux-Arts
Walk around the Vieux-Ville
Dinner at Café de Paris
Day 2 (full-day)
Coffee at Q de bouteilles
Visit Villa Cavrois
Visit La Piscine
Day 3 (half-day)
Visit Louvre-Lens
Eat lunch at L’Atelier de Cerisier
Walk around
Go home ☹️
Day 1 : Palais des Beaux-Arts & Dinner
First things first: Get the City Pass. If I found anything worthwhile during this trip, it’s this city pass. For 30 euros, I had a 48-hour pass to go to every museum on my list and use public transportation without purchasing any additional tickets. It actually couldn’t have been easier. I wish every city had this.
After picking up your city pass at the tourist office, head to the Palais des Beaux-Arts. It’s one of the biggest museums in France. I’ll be honest, don’t expect the Louvre. The museum is beautiful inside, but it isn’t secretly housing any Vermeers. They had an interesting exhibit about the absence of art by women in their museum, which was both self-aware and depressing. If you’re lucky, you’ll see an older Frenchwoman painting (I stood behind her for 15+ minutes). After you’ve felt you’ve seen all there is to see in the museum, take your time wandering back to le vieux-ville (the historic city center).
Frankly, food was not the highlight of this trip, which feels un petit peu sacrilegious to say when talking about France. I had mostly decent meals, but not many to write home (or a Substack) about. One exception is that if you’re Lille, and enjoy steak frites, you must go to Café de Paris. They only serve salad, steak frites, and desserts. They bring the steak frites table-side, and will give you more frites if you ask (I did). No matter how full you are after eating your dinner, you absolutely must get their brioche perdu for dessert. I seriously cannot stop thinking about how delicious it was.
Day 2 : Villa Cavrois & La Piscine
Start your morning by grabbing a coffee and pastry from Q de bouteilles - Café Boutique. It’s a very cool coffee and glassware store on a picturesque old Flemish street. From there, you’ll walk to the Gare Lille Flandres and get on the train headed towards Villa Cavrois.
Villa Cavrois is a modernist mansion 35 minutes outside of Lille. It has a pretty interesting history, but more than anything it is just phenomenally designed. Every room is so perfectly thought out that I had to withhold saying “wow” every time I moved from one room to another.
After you’ve spent enough time at the Villa, head to La Piscine. I had originally intended to take public transport to La Piscine but ended up walking the hour from Villa Cavrois. I would not say it was the most scenic walk in the world, but I love a long walk, so I didn’t mind the trek. La Piscine is really pretty incredible. Like the Beaux-Arts, it’s not the most impressive art collection, but there is a sculpture gallery inside a former natatorium, which is stunning.
Once you’re back in Lille, grab a treat and walk around before getting dinner. I didn’t love my second dinner, so I won’t recommend it, but there are tons of restaurants to explore. In terms of an afternoon dessert:
Tons of stands sell “croustillons hollandais” or beignets/doughnuts, which are très tasty.
Méert is a 300-year-old institution famous for its waffles (I did not get one, but they looked good).
I randomly got a VERY good pistachio-filled chocolate chip cookie at The Delambre Bakery.
Day 3: Louvre-Lens
Your last day is all about the Louvre-Lens. Once again, you’ll start your morning at Gare Lille Flandres, though instead of taking the city’s underground, you’ll take the SNCF (the national rail system in France). This museum is about 90 minutes from Lille (an hour-long train and 30-minute walk). So, if you’re not a huge art history nerd, and you don’t have a spare day, I would skip this museum, but if you are a nerd, it’s 100% worth the travel.
The Louvre-Lens, as its name suggests, is an outpost of the Louvre. Unlike the Palais des Beaux-Arts, this museum is “secretly” housing a Vermeer. I cannot overemphasize my surprise when I was unexpectedly standing in front of one of two Vermeers in public collection in the entire nation of France. The museum is incredible. The permanent gallery called the “Gallery of Time,” is one large room, in modern art fashion, that is in complete chronological order (There are minimalist markers along the ceiling that show you what century you’re in). It’s pretty remarkable to see Egyptian antiquities alongside French Renaissance paintings. There is no underlying theme or story within the exhibit, it is just art across time, and it is spectacular.
The restaurant at the museum, L’Atelier de Cerisier is a very good post-museum reflection/refueling spot. Their French onion soup rivals American French onion soup. Yes, I said it, I think soupe à l'oignon is better in the States (more cheese).
That’s it! Head back to Lille, pop into a French pharmacy for the best skincare products, and get on the Eurostar back to London (or wherever you’re headed next). Au revoir!
Guides:
Instagram got rid of its guides feature, so I no longer have them posted on my Instagram for your reference. You can view all my Google Map pins here. I didn’t necessarily go to all these places, but it was my preliminary research.
You can also find more ~curated~ guides on the Amigo app. I’m not sure this app has hit the mainstream yet, but it’s a great place to find good travel recommendations. The app can use some improvement, but you can see everywhere Sam Youkilis eats, and for me, that’s worth a medium-user experience.
Weekly Reccos:
What to read: One Day by David Nicholls
What to watch: One Day on Netflix
What to listen to: Normal Gossip: Splitting the Dog Vote (My sister reccomended this to me over Christmas, and I just listened to it).