Lille: more Flemish than French

Passed between France and Flanders many times over the centuries, Lille preserves a historic center with Flemish architecture unlike any other major French city.

The Flemish center is explored on foot, with the automatic metro useful for distant neighborhoods.

In Grand Place, officially Place du Général de Gaulle, Flemish brick facades with gilded ornaments surround the ancient seventeenth-century Stock Exchange.

Just steps away, Old Lille, a neighborhood of cobblestones and timber-framed houses, preserves the look of a Flemish city more than a French one, with hidden boutiques among the alleyways.

Continuing on, you reach the Palace of Fine Arts, France's second most important museum for collection size after the Louvre, with works spanning from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century.

Toward evening, a waffle or mussels-fries at a central restaurant reflect the cultural proximity to Belgium, just kilometers away.

Charles de Gaulle was born in Lille in 1890, in a house now transformed into a museum just steps away from the square bearing his name.

The city changed hands so many times among Spanish, Flemish, and French rulers that its architecture remains distinctly hybrid to this day, easily recognizable compared to the rest of northern France.