Lille Travel Forum

If you had 4.5 days in Belgium and 8 days in Paris, with 1 day to spend where ever you wanted. Would you A. Spend it in Lille, B. Add it to Paris or C. Add it to Belgium (we are going to Brussels, Brugge, and Ghent)???

What is Lille like? I read about it in Fodors, but it doesn't say too much except its a small town and there is a big mall type thing to shop in. Is this town worth stopping in?

Personally I would add a day to Belgium as the those cities you mentioned are absolutely spectacular. However, as you have to travel to Paris somehow and would probably drive past Lille you could really visit this city. It is much more interesting than you might think. Especially if you are interested in history it is well worth a visit. They also have beautiful buildings and great museums, so something for everyone.

We spent 4 beautiful days in Lille last April and absolutely loved it. I would love to go back to repeat the experience and to complete our exploration of a most attractive city - you are welcome to look at my Lille pages.

Either Paris or Belgium - Lille is a place for a couple of hours or so - probably made famous by the nearby factory outlets.

im living in Lille. i can tell you, its definitely worth it to go shopping!!! there is the center and also "Euralille" near the Gare Europe.
hope that will be helpful...
any time!
nannie

When I went to Lille I did not know there were "shopping outlets" there and thankfully did not discover them.

I never travel just to shop - I enjoyed Lille for its own character, history and culture.
So - whether you like shopping or not (and quite apart from any "outlets" very high class shopping is available in Lille) - it has a great deal more than a few good shopping opportunities to make it a very attractive and interesting city.!!

Spend your extra day in Lille, the Old Town (vieille ville) is exceptional. Brilliant city. Its Palais des Beaux Arts is exceptional (one of France's leading museums) and the city centre is very attractive and very lively.

Paris, Ghent and Bruges are all lovely and of course very popular with tourists. Bruges suffers the worst for this because of its relatively small size but Lille is very well worth a visit. In fact if you put Paris aside as something you can't really compare the others with, then I'd say Lille is probably my favourite. It is a real 'living' city, the largest in Northern France and has the shops (both malls and classy boutiques in the old town), restaurants, etc you'd expect but it also has an excellent fine art museum, opera house and the wonderful Citadelle - park with small zoo (free).

How to spend a day in Lille? Have a wander round the Citadelle in the morning (watch out for herons in the moat), then walk into town for lunch, spend a hour or two in the Musee Beaux Arts, then head to the old town for some shopping and tea at Meerts (the best hot chocolate ever). In the evening dine out in one of the many restaurants!

Well worth a visit. I have just booked a return trip even though I am not usually someone who goes back anywhere (too many places to see; too little time!). Enjoy! Sam from England

Since we're planning our first trip to Lille INSTEAD of Brussels, I'd go for Lille.