I am going to let you in on a little industry secret. Usually, when you come across travel articles purporting to show you 24 hours in a holiday destination, a little creative licence has been applied. A writer might spend two or three days in a city and then condense their findings down to a 24-hour timeline. That feels catchier, bite-size, if not exactly truthful. But I’m being fully transparent with you here – I really did spend 24 hours in Lille and I’m going to tell you all about it. OK, fine, 27 and a half hours, but who’s counting?
Unlike a lot of European away day candidates, Lille is a city perfectly suited to such a short break. It’s easily accessible by train from much of the continent, and it’s surprisingly small and walkable, meaning you won’t feel you’ve missed huge swathes. To get there, I nipped over on a Eurostar from London, which took a shockingly brief one and a half hours. I arrived at midday, and no sooner had I stepped off the train than it started hailing. Forget sun-drenched Provençal vineyards here in northern France; I quickly learned that tourists do not flock to Lille for its weather.
To avoid the ice dropping from the heavens, I ducked into a café overlooking Lille’s Notre-Dame-de-la-Treille Cathedral, which is situated in the Vieux-Lille area of the city, comprised of cobbled streets, high-end boutiques, independent shops and plenty of restaurants and bars. I sat and watched the world go by, although given the hailstorm, not much was happening. After my coffee, I headed inside the cathedral and found a genuinely breathtaking interior. The facade is made of semi-transparent marble, letting the daylight filter through, and the cathedral’s crypt unusually houses modern religious artworks, including one by Andy Warhol.
I bought a 24-hour pass for Lille’s very straightforward metro system, and hopped a couple of stops south to the Saint-Michel neighbourhood. My destination was Café Bellot, a stylish bistro serving elevated French classics to a buzzy lunch crowd. An unexpected aspect of Lille I discovered is its reputation as the beer capital of France. The city’s proximity to Belgium means you’ll often see longer beer lists at restaurants than wine selections, with over 250 breweries in this region alone. At Café Bellot, the beer all comes from local breweries, and the food menu changes daily.
It’s also handily located close to one of France’s largest art museums, the Palais des Beaux Arts, which boasts collections from medieval times to the modern era. Works by Monet, Van Gogh, Rubens and Van Dyck dot the walls, while sculptures by Rodin line the impressive hallways. After this cultural excursion, I ventured back into the centre for a different Lille institution, the Méert tearoom. Here comes that Belgian influence again – Méert is famous for its gaufres, which are small waffles filled with sugary cream. One of those gave me the perfect sugar boost before I set off to see LOSC Lille take on Dortmund in their Champions League round of 16 decider.
A pâtissier gets to work (left); the city’s Vieux-Lille district (top right); inside Lille’s cathedral (right)
The Stade Pierre-Mauroy is a little way out of the city, so I got back on the metro, which has two different stops for match-bound supporters. I chose the earlier stop to soak up a bit of atmosphere on the way to the stadium – but was greeted with one of the least picturesque walks to a ground I’ve ever experienced. Craven Cottage it was not. The trek took me through a giant supermarket car park, which is where I realised that a significant proportion of Lille fans drive to the game instead.
Inside the stadium, the ambience was completely different. The Stade Pierre-Mauroy has an enormous 50,000-strong capacity for a city of Lille’s size. The total population is just 239,000, meaning roughly 20% of Lille’s residents are needed to fill it. But fill it they did; the noise was deafening. Les Dogues were vying to reach the Champions League quarter-finals for the first time in their history and the first leg had ended 1-1, meaning everything was still left to play for.
A goal inside five minutes by Lille forward Jonathan David notched the noise levels up even more, but after their dream start the hosts struggled to maintain control. A second-half Dortmund penalty brought the tie level again, before a beautiful Maximilian Beier goal took victory out of Lille’s grasp. Despite the loss, however, the home crowd never let up, and they continued singing and chanting even at full time, when the dejected players made their way over to applaud the fans.
The next morning, I woke up early and tracked down something else Lille is famous for – its markets. Every September, the city becomes home to Europe’s largest flea market, the Braderie de Lille, when over two million visitors flock to its streets. All year round, though, miniature versions can be found here and there, the best known taking place in the Wazemmes neighbourhood. It turned out to be probably the largest market I’ve ever visited, with stalls as far as the eye could see selling everything from fruit and veg to antiques.
