Lille is situated in the north of France and only became part of it in the 17th century. Until then it belonged to Flanders - which is the reason why the railway station is named Lille Flandres.
We went by bus, because it's really not that far away from Flanders. We reached Lille before 10 am. After parking the bus near the railway station, we walked into the city center and visited the arts museum, which ranks nr. 2 in France because it has valuable collections. A guide took us through the collections. The most valuable item was a painting (a big one!) by Peter Paul Rubens and also impressive were the models for military use of different towns in Flanders. These were made by order of King Louis XIV because he had conquered these towns and wanted to have an oversight of the strongpoints and weaknesses of each town, to be able to defend them better.
By noon we had lunch in a typical bistro and later on we walked through the old city center, while our students made an assignment.
Lille is quite a nice town, very much Flemish in character, and also has a typical belfry. I really want to return on of the coming months, and stay for a couple of days.
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