September 23 – Lille

Well I guess all European towns can’t be magical and Lille is one of these.  We spent a very ordinary day walking around the old town in the heart of Lille.  The architecture was very dull with no unique features or buildings.  Only when we got to the main square did the area take on any character.  This is also one of the few cities on our recent trips that we have not felt safe walking the streets at night.

Lille is France's fifth city. The whole metropolitan area of Lille was estimated in 2007 at around 1,000,000. Archeological digs seem to show the area as inhabited by as early as 2000 BC and the first recorded mention of the village was 1066. The city profited from the Industrial Revolution. The entire region grew wealthy thanks to its mines and textile industry. Lille features an array of architectural styles with the Flemish influence the most prominent.

Pedestrian shopping area in Lille

Shop in Lille

Grand Place

Our hotel is in a modern urban high density development known as Euralille.  There is no way I could live in such a soulless collection of apartment buildings. The modern part of downtown Lille is a mass of angular shaped buildings with small irregularly spaced windows.  It seems like both areas have been taken straight out of the movie Blade Runner.

Magpie in Lille

During our walk we saw several Magpies.  These birds are very distinctive with their black and white colouring and long tail.

This upcoming weekend Lille is having its annual Renaissance carnival and they were putting up the statues along the parade route.

With no English TV, we have resorted to watching French documentaries on Russian mushroom farmers.  As Jack Parr would say “I kid you naught.”

On the bright side we did find a wonderful restaurant tonight in the old town called Comptoir 44. It was in a magnificent old building with many antiques.  Marg had a tomato based broth with a browned Mozzarella topping, sea base and a lemon and lime pancetta for dessert.  I had raw salmon for starters and a nice pork chop for an entree.  Our wine was a Bordeaux called Duc des Neuvers. Again it was a top notch dining experience.