The city of Lille itself is supposed to be the third biggest city in France, but this is only calculated by including some huge conurbations in the surrounding countryside and suburban sprawl. The actual city centre of Lille itself, within the peripherique motorway is quite small. You can walk all round in a day and on a three day trip we found ourselves retracing our own footsteps several times. Upon arrival at the Lille Europe Eurostar station we had decided to take a taxi to get to our hotel, for convenience and because the amount of time allowed was tight. But once we got to know our way around we discovered it wouldn’t have been too far to walk, and that’s what we did on the way back again. The Lille Europe station is a huge modern edifice right next to an imposing modern shopping mall, but once you walk through there, or indeed around the side, the old city is just a few minutes away and you need never re-enter the dalek city until it’s time to go home again.

Our hotel was an experiment in budget accommodation that I wouldn’t really recommend. At half the price of a conventional hotel room, the Apparthotel sounded to good to be true with cooking facilities included in the deal, and indeed it was. The service was really weird, with nobody being there at the reception at the time advertised as being manned. So we had to wait around with a bunch of other people who were all tapping away at their smart phones. One of them got through to the management or somebody who then dictated the combination number for the safe in the reception are, and lo and behold the safe opened and inside were a bunch of envelopes. One had our name on it and contained the keys to the room (scary digital keys) and documentation. So that was OK, kind of , but if we’d bothered to check Google street view before booking we’d have known that the building was right next to the busy motorway periperique road. So we were in for a noisy night, or a hot one with the windows closed.

But there are plenty of other hotels to choose from when booking city breaks in Lille Europe, so don’t let the apparthotel experience put you off. It doesn’t really matter too much how central you are either, because out in the Grand Palais area where we ended up, it was still only about twenty minutes walk into the city centre, whether the old Flanders Station area of the big square. And then only another 5 minutes into the old town area, where all the nice markets, restaurants and bars are.  In the big square by the Opera and the old Stock Exchange, I’d recommend the Chicory Restaurant – La Chicoree which has been there for years, does all the traditional flemmish dishes and is open all hours. The food is just wonderful whether you have a simple steak and chips or the special waterzoi  fish stew, carbonade or a local speciality – mussels. The beer is great wherever you go too. Leffe is the most popular, served in 25, 33 or 50cl glasses ice cold but after a while you must try some of the other brews,  perhaps a Affligem or one of the biere Ambrees from the local micro brew pubs.

I’ve said that Lille has a small enough city centre, and that makes it less hectic than big city breaks in Europe liek Paris or London, but Lille is very much a city base for city type activities. There is precious little green space around and the cars are almost everywhere. Make the most of the pedestrianized areas in the old town and the quiet area around the half finished cathedral.

So enjoy Lille for the food and drink, the flemish culture  and history as well as being a very accessible french city on the main Eurostar route.

City Breaks Europe – Lille set on Flickr

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Rail Europe

Rail Europe consists of ten high speed trains. They are Eurostar, Thalys, TGV, Eurostar Italia, Lyria, AVE, Inter-City Express (ICE), Cisalpino, Artesia, and Talgo. Eurostar deals include travel through the Channel tunnel and connect you to major cities in under two and a half hours. For example, you can travel from: London to Brussels in 1 hour 51 minutes London to Lille in 1 hour 20 minutes London to Disneyland Paris in 2 hours 15 minutes

Thalys

The Thalys train provides direct links to 17 cities including Paris, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany in over 50 round-trips a day. It can even take you from Paris to Brussels in less than ninety minutes.

The TGV

The TGV is your choice when traveling to France, Switzerland, Germany and Belgium. Lyria – Gives you a spectacular view from the rolling French countryside to the majestic Swiss Alps. Artesia – This high-speed train takes you from the best of France to the best of Italy by day or night, via connecting city pairs of Paris and Rome, Dijon and Milan, Chambrey and Florence and 13 others.

Talgo

Talgo passes through brilliant coastal landscapes moving you from one port city to another in stress-free comfort, such as Montpellier, Narbonne and Perpignan in France, and Barcelona, Alicante, Cartegena, and Valencia in Spain.

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Travel and Leisure 2010 World Cup, all inclusive holiday destination,
all inclusive holidays in Turkey, all-inclusive resorts, city breaks,
Holidays in Europe, holidays to bargain resorts.

Ideas For Weekend Breaks

Find out more about Weekend breaks in the UK. There are many great
destinations in the UK in which to take weekend breaks. It’s worth
visiting as much of Britain as you can, after all, why go abroad.
Stratford-upon-Avon is also home to the very beautiful Holy Trinity
Church, an oasis of calm away from the town where both Shakespeare and
Anne Hathaway are buried, as well as Europe’s largest butterfly park,
which both children and adults can enjoy during a UK city break.

Top destinations for Brits in 2010 includes many all inclusive city
breaks packages

Holidays in Europe where countries aren’t part of the Euro will remain
popular choices as many holidaymakers don’t just go to sunny or
tropical countries for sun, sea and sand.

Cheap Flights to Amsterdam

Always book in advance to avail best offers for your next short city
breaks in Europe or Overseas. Booking in advance can save your money
while looking for a budget or low cost flights.

Prague is famous for many charm and is also known as the traditional
culture center of the Europe. The city also hosts Film Festivals,
Music Festivals, a Writers Festival, and Fashion Shows. Culture life
of the Prague is very generous here. The most popular tourist
attractions that you can’t afford to miss while you are on a Prague
city breaks are museums and art galleries. The picturesque town of
Czech Republic catch the attention of millions of tourists every year.

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For £200 it would be a miracle to find a city break for two, as a European break means two return flights, which even with a budget airline company will cost about £120 minimum.

Although Sardinia can be cheap depending on where you stay, the flights there will usually cover most of the £200 anyway. (Eurostar is also extremely expensive which i have never really understood.)

Alternatively, what you could do is drive yourselves to Paris or Rouen (which would be cheaper and close enough to visit Paris during the day). Taking the Eurotunnel will set you back about £70 each way, depending on the time and date you go through it.

Otherwise, you’ll have to loosen the purse strings,

If not, somerset is quite nice this time of year…

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To get reasonable weather in November its going to have to be Southern Europe. I’d recommend Rome, Madrid, Lisbon, Seville or Granada.

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