As you know on Little Break, Big Difference its not all about us as we want to share with you as many discoveries as we can, so we also invite guest bloggers to let you know about their favourite area in Lille, Paris and Brussels as well.
Our first guest is called Guillaume from the ecotourism blog. As a native of Lille, he knows the city like the back of his hand and has a lot of stories to tell you about it. Thanks for joining us on Little Break Big Difference, Guillaume!
France is known worldwide for its food markets: fresh fruits and vegetables, delicacies and noisy sellers make it a colorful picture. Lille is blessed enough to have several markets going on at different times of the week, but two of them that happen every Sunday are especially worthwhile.
The first one is located in le vieux Lille – Lille old town – at la Place du Concert, 10 minutes away from the main square. It is a relatively small market but it is quite enjoyable as walking through it on Sunday morning will enable you to feel the village atmosphere that reigns in this part of town.
While you are there, you can get a coffee and a few French pastries at the different cafés and patisseries located in the nearby Rue de la Monnaie.
After this, you can take the tube (Line 1) to Gambetta to enjoy the biggest market in town: le marché de Wazemmes, situated in an up and coming area of Lille with a vibrant North African population. Sunday is the best day of this market but it also runs on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
More than 50,000 people come every week to buy mainly food, but also flowers and clothes. There are dozens of fruit and vegetable stalls with with loud sellers trying to convince you they offer you the best deal on the planet, which sometimes makes it feel like a souk.
My favorite treat is buying olives or fruits and eating them while strolling in the market. There are also plenty of shops and bars in the area, so there are numerous opportunities for shopping.
Because there are many places to eat all around the square, you can also buy food on the go from one of the numerous North African restaurants. My suggestion is to take your time, sit down in one of these restaurants, and enjoy a delicious couscous with a chilled rosé.
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Interesting, is transport easy in Lille?
Yes transportation is quite good, there are two tube lines and a decent network of buses. But to be honest, you can walk around as distances between things to see are not huge.