Lille’s main square, Place du General de Gaulle, house the city’s most magnificent buildings. The Vieille Bourse was built in the 17th century to rival the exchanges of other great cities. It contains 24 individual houses set around an interior courtyard. The Renaissance façade reflects the architect, Julien Destrée’s, expertise as a wood sculptor. Garlands,…
Palais des Beaux-Arts is Lille’s main art museum. It’s housed in an impressive 19th-century monument with interesting design touches. Napoleon, um, encouraged the museum’s initial collection by obtaining the pieces from churches and other monument throughout Europe. An assortment of art is here: 15th-20th century European paintings, prints and drawings, antiquities, 17th- and 18th-century ceramics…
Lille is a 2.5-hour drive from our house, yet until now my husband and I continually passed it up for its more glitzy neighbors: gustatory Brussels, the sparking Champagne region, picturesque Brugges. It doesn’t help that Lille is not really known for anything, except its people, called Ch’tis by the rest of France. The Lillois…
French friends in Luxembourg recommended this casual, popular regional restaurant to us. It is a specific type of eatery, an esaminet, which is a traditional Flemish restaurant with wooden tables and rafters and antiques galore. We were advised to have the well-known specialty, the Welch, which is a heavy potato, cheese, ham, beer and cream…
When my husband and I travel together, we spend a lot of time searching for food. Sometimes we’re trying to find a specific place someone recommended, other times we want the perfect reservation, but most of the time we’re wandering and seeing what looks good. When we wander, most of the meals are okay to…
It was a treat to stumble upon French artist Jean-François Fourtou’s art installation, “Tombée du Ciel”, or “Fallen From the Sky”, which is based on his grandparents’ house. It’s a truly bizarre experience inside! The entrance is through a second-story window, and once inside, all the fixtures and furniture are overhead.
On a frigid day, this friendly dog guarded the doorway to a painter’s atelier.
Watching this pastry chef create Lillois treat Aux Merveilleux made my mouth water. Aux Merveilleux, a native of northern France and Flanders, are meringue (strong on the outside and undercooked on the inside) and buttercream sandwiches, encased in a layer of buttercream. They come in three varieties: the Classic chocolate, the Incroyable speculoos and white…
Few things are more French than a hearty protest or strike and the latest social issue, same-sex marriage and adoption rights, has roused people to the winter streets. After the disgusting anti-gay marriage demonstration in Paris last weekend, I was glad to see a pro-gay rights parade here in Lille, ridiculous cold weather be damned!
When we arrived in Lille after a 2-1/2 hour drive, the first thing we saw was this spectacular street.