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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Lille is one of the lest well known treasure for city breaks Europe, not being a capital city or having a famous airport but when the mayor of Lille negotiated to make sure the new Eurostar service from Paris to London woul dhave an international station at Lille, the future for the northern city as a tourist destination was assured. Historically, the city Lille and surroundings were once part the flemish area of northern Europe, and it is now very much a part of France although the Flemish influence is evident in some of the historic building around the old centre of Lille, and in some of the traditions such as holding a Christmas market every November.

Modern Lille has a huge shopping centre, with all the big French shops so that makes it an interesting candidate for eurostar deals from London, including day trips for shoppers. The journey time from London St Pancras to Lille-Europe station is under 1 1/2 hours!

But never mind day trips, if you want to get to know a lot more about the people and customs of Lille take a few days to make it into one of the most delightful city breaks. Europe has few places left that have been untrampled by international travellers from overseas but Lille is a city with a character that remains 100% northern European.

City Breaks Europe – Lille : How to get there

From London, Paris or Brussels the Eurostar direct fast speed train service is by far the best way to travel to Lille. Similarly, you can make good rail connections from say Manchester or Amsterdam. If you want to bring a car, then the autoroute system in France is very fast and efficient but you will have to pay a toll for longer journeys. Parking in Lille is problematic so when planning city breaks, Europe has great railway systems and cheap airlines whereas the old cities were never really designed for modern traffic conditions so wherever possible it’s best to leave the motor behind.

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