Lille

A stay in Lille was not in the original plan. It was meant to be a brief stop before changing trains to Lyon. But a French rail strike put paid to that (yes their railwaymen like striking as much as ours, and the Italians of course). So Thibault, as ever the resourceful travel agent, managed at the last moment to get our first class train reservation switched to Good Friday morning, cancel our first night accommodation in Lyon and found a hotel on the outskirts of Lille. Basically this was a conference hotel. Which means basic, but fine.

As you can see below, we didn't pay a premium for the view!

So having dumped our gear, we headed out into a very grey Lille for a bit of a wander.

The theatre. With a notice that theatre staff were out on strike too....

This is a 12th century hospital (well originally established then but much altered since)

We cut our loses and found a craft beer place - beer is a bigger thing in Lille than in most of France. Its beer menu ran to 24 pages - too much choice! So Thibault and I went for a tasting flight of four beers, with some sausage. All fine apart from one beer which was foul. Ah well, better than choosing one beer that one didn't like. 

From there to an Italian (!) restaurant for dinner.

Next morning we had breakfast in a pretty funky little place before heading for the train.

Lille has a modern station to receive the Eurostar trains, but an old (and far nicer one) for more local trains.

With a rather strange sculpture outside!