Lille
France
A Flemish city that became French in 1667 and still eats and drinks like it is not, an hour and a half from London by train
Photo by Zhu Yunxiao on Unsplash
Photos by Tim L. Productions, Alex, Martti Salmi and Jacques Dillies on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of France
May to September (the Braderie fills the city at the end of summer)
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 70mm in Nov
Where it is
50.64°N, 3.06°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
Several days- Walk Vieux-Lille in the morning before the shops open
- Eat a welsh once, with a Belgian beer, and skip dinner
- Give the Palais des Beaux-Arts a whole afternoon
- Take the tram to La Piscine in Roubaix
- Come for the Braderie if you like crowds and mussels, and stay away if you do not
Lille travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget France
Mid-rangeEuros, and cards everywhere. The exchange counters at the stations are the worst rate in the city and are not needed.
ATMs & cards
Bank machines all over the centre. Use a bank’s own machine rather than a standalone one at the stations, and refuse the offer to convert into your own currency.
Avoid these
- Euronet
- the exchange counters at the stations
- independent machines that offer to charge you in your own currency
Use these instead
- Crédit Agricole
- Crédit Mutuel
- BNP Paribas
- Société Générale
Cards are taken everywhere, including the estaminets. Refuse any offer to convert.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of France
Reasonably safeA big French city with the usual problems in the usual places. Bag and phone theft at Lille-Flandres and Lille-Europe and on the metro; drunkenness on the student bar streets late at weekends. The old town and the Grand’Place are busy and fine into the night. During the Braderie, with two million visitors in a weekend, pickpocketing is organised and constant — carry as little as you can.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (8 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
- Vieux-Lille
- the Grand’Place
- the Citadelle park — by day
- Wazemmes market — on market mornings
Worth more attention
- Lille-Flandres station — and Lille-Europe, for bag and phone theft
- the metro — pickpockets at the busy central stations
- rue Masséna late at night — the student bar street, loud and drunk at weekends
- The Braderie weekend, when pickpocketing is organised and constant
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa France visa rules
No visa needed
Freedom of movement — no time limit, and no visa. Bring a passport or national ID card.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 90 days
90 days within any 180-day period, counted across the whole Schengen area, not per country. ETIAS, a paid online authorisation, is being introduced for these passports — check the official link for whether it applies to your travel dates.
Visa required in advance€90 (Schengen short-stay visa)
A Schengen short-stay visa is applied for before travel, at the consulate of your main destination.
How to get it: Apply at the consulate or visa centre of the country you will spend most time in, typically 15 working days ahead and no more than six months before travel.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of France
Excellent and cheapRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Routine vaccinations up to date
Getting treated
EU/EEA and Swiss visitors are treated on the same terms as residents with an EHIC or GHIC card; UK visitors use a GHIC. Everyone else pays, and travel insurance is worth having for the repatriation cover rather than the treatment.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
Very goodThe food is Flemish: carbonnade flamande, beef stewed in beer; potjevleesch, cold meats in jelly; and the welsh, which is cheddar melted with beer over bread and ham and is exactly as heavy as it sounds. Maroilles is the cheese that smells. Méert on the rue Esquermoise has sold vanilla-filled waffles since the eighteenth century. The beer is Belgian-style and good.
Travel tipsNightlife
A large student city with a real weekend: cheap bars in long rows, wine and cocktail bars in the old town, and beer everywhere.
- rue Masséna — and rue Solférino, the student bar streets
- Vieux-Lille — cocktail and wine bars in the old streets
- the Grand’Place — terraces and brasseries, the meeting point
- Wazemmes — neighbourhood bars, cheaper and less student
Closing: Most bars 01:00 to 02:00 at weekends, earlier in the week; clubs later.
Getting around
Easy and cheap- UberWorks here
- BoltWorks here
- G7Works here
- FREE NOWWorks here
G7 the taxi fleet, by app
- Against a taxi
- Much the same. The flat airport rate is a taxi rule and the apps price against it.
Time zone and your working day
Europe/Paris — 6 hours ahead of you
2 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–11:00 your time, 15:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 03:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 03:00–11:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
eSIM
A data eSIM for France, installed before you fly and working the moment you land:
Works here
Works hereRevolutIn the app
Must-see
Travel tipsNearby day trips
Travel tipsSay a few words
French
- HelloBonjourbon-ZHOOR
- PleaseS'il vous plaîtseel voo PLEH
- Thank youMercimer-SEE
- Yes / NoOui / Nonwee / non
4 more phrases
- Excuse meExcusez-moiex-koo-zay MWA
- How much is it?C'est combien ?say com-BYEN
- The bill, pleaseL'addition, s'il vous plaîtla-dee-SYON
- Cheers!Santé !son-TAY
Open with bonjour before anything else. Launching straight into a question without it reads as rude, and explains a lot of reputed French coldness.
Travel tipsReligion
Catholic, and strictly secular
Laïcité is a constitutional principle: religion is kept out of public institutions, and conspicuous religious symbols are banned in state schools. Cover shoulders in cathedrals.
Travel tipsDo's and don'ts
Do
- Say bonjour before anything else, every single time you enter a shop
- Keep your voice down in restaurants and on public transport
- Keep both hands visible on the table while eating, wrists on the edge
- Dress a notch smarter than you would at home — it changes how you are treated
Don't
- Do not ask for a doggy bag or substitutions; the dish arrives as the kitchen intends
- Do not start with English without at least attempting bonjour, parlez-vous anglais
- Do not tip more than rounding up — service is included by law
- Do not eat while walking; it reads as slightly uncivilised
Where to stay in Lille
No Holistay rentals in Lille yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Lille on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Paris Charles de Gaulle CDG
1h 10mfrom the airport, roughly
About 1h10 door to door, on the direct TGV from the airport station to Lille-Europe.
Also worth pricing: Lille LIL — twenty minutes from the centre, with mostly French and holiday flights.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
