On arrival at Lille Europe station

Bienvenue à Lille! Onward travel: Lille Europe and the nearby Lille Flanders (just a few minutes walk away, or one stop on the metro line) are major rail hubs in Europe with onwards connections to France, Germany and The Netherlands.

What’s most remarkable about the city today is how it has revived and reinvented itself – with much of its rejuvenation kickstarted by the arrival of high speed rail. Since the building of the sleek Lille-Europe train station in the early 1990s, Lille has become spruced up and reinvigorated. Meanwhile the residents of Lille - called Ch’tis after the local dialect – have become dab hands at devising new uses for historic buildings – medieval hospital to hotel; textile mill to arts centre and so on. What’s more, as the hub of the Nord Pas de Calais region, Lille has impressive transport links with about 60 bus routes serving the greater city area, two tram lines and one of the world’s longest automated metro systems. So it is easy to explore the outer reaches of this enterprising area.