Lille - The Nearest Bit Of France

If you beat the traffic around Utrecht and Antwerp it takes only 2 and half hours from Amsterdam to the nearest French city in the northernmost corner of the Hexagon. Lille is not big on tourist maps and some people even wrinkle their noses when you mention it but it is beautiful enough to me. The historic centre, the Vieux Lille, is charming, there is a citadel, a maze of cobbled streets with café terraces, grand squares and attractive Flemish Gothic buildings. I also like that in every neighbourhood there is at least one Auchan hypermarket where I can stock up on good quality French groceries in one stop (say, Carrefour, let alone Leclerc, just doesn't cut it).

The city's other name is Rijssel (pronounced 'rice-cell'), which is Flemish: Lille became permanently annexed to France only in the times of Louis XIV. Historically it is part of the Flemish Low Lands and it is obvious from the Belgian-looking architecture and simple hearty food with un-Gallic names like waterzooi, potjevleesch and speculoos. Northerly vegetables like leek, potatoes and chicory as well as fresh sea produce from the coast are featured prominently in the local diet. The drink of choice here is beer, most often the iconic Ch'ti - the Lille area is even referred to as the Ch'ti Land. It makes way even in soup called soupe flamande. Lille forms part of the Moules Frites Belt that extends as far in the north as Dutch Zeeland - steamed mussels with French fries (served with mayonnaise, never ketchup!) here is the answer to American burger-based fast food. Finish those off with typical sweet aromatic wafers and you won't know you're not in Belgium any more.

Paradoxically, just over the Flemish border you will be very hard pressed to find anyone who can understand Dutch. As everywhere else in France, dialects and local languages have been pro-actively uprooted since the 1789 Revolution: there is now just about 80 thousand Flemish speakers left in the area and, as it goes, they are mostly countryside-dwelling grandpas and grannies.

Lille deserves a full report but this time we only spent their a night, so here is a glimpse of night-time Lille.

Tip: Don't order seafood platters in restaurants, don't even buy ready-made one in supermarkets: go to the poissonnier section in Auchan and pick a lobster, a crab, a box of oysters, then shrimp, bulots and amandes half a kilo each, perhaps crevettes grises and bigourneaux if you like those (I do!); then get some lemons, baguettes, mayonnaise and a couple bottles of Muscadet or cidre brut and you have a slap-up seafood dîner for two. Drive on to a scenic location for an additional aesthetic kick.

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