Lille Sightseeing Bus Tour

Place Rihour, the Grand Place and the Old Stock Exchange

The tour starts at Place Rihour beside the Palais Rihour, a 15th-century Gothic palace built by the Dukes of Burgundy that now houses the tourist office. A few steps away opens the Grand Place, the heart of Lille, with its Goddess Column recalling the city's resistance to the siege of 1792 and a ring of elegant Flemish-style facades.

On one side stands the Old Stock Exchange, built in 1652 and 1653 and perhaps the finest building in the city: 24 identical houses around an arcaded courtyard, covered in carved garlands, lions' heads and caryatids. Locals come to its courtyard to browse second-hand book stalls and play chess in the afternoons. This is where most people looking for things to do in Lille begin, and the open-top coach gives you the full view of the square from above the traffic.

The Opera House and Vieux-Lille

Next comes the Place du Théâtre, framed by the Opera House, a grand neoclassical building completed in 1923, and the Chamber of Commerce with its neo-Flemish belfry. Together with the Old Stock Exchange they form one of the most harmonious groups of buildings in northern France, especially when lit up at night.

The coach then threads into Vieux-Lille, the old quarter, where cobbled lanes are lined with 17th- and 18th-century houses in red brick and pale stone, many now independent boutiques and pastry shops. You pass the Cathedral of Notre-Dame-de-la-Treille, begun in 1854 and finished only in 1999 with a striking modern facade, and the old Hospice Comtesse. Vieux-Lille is the part of the city most visitors want to come back to on foot after the tour.

The Citadel of Lille

Just outside the old quarter lies the Citadel of Lille, a vast five-pointed star of brick ramparts and moats built from 1667 to 1670, soon after the city became French. Its design was so perfect that it was nicknamed the Queen of Citadels, and it is still an active military base today, which is why the tour shows it from the outside.

Around the walls stretches the Citadel park, a large green area along the Deûle canal with tree-lined paths, a small zoo and playgrounds, a favourite weekend escape for Lille families. The audio guide tells the story of the many sieges the city endured on the border between France and Flanders, and how the Citadel shaped its history.

Palais des Beaux-Arts, Porte de Paris and the Town Hall belfry

Back in the centre, the coach passes the Palais des Beaux-Arts, a palatial museum built between 1885 and 1892 on the Place de la République. It holds one of the richest art collections in France outside Paris, with European paintings from the Renaissance to the 19th century and an unusual collection of scale models of fortified towns. Entry is not included, but it is easy to visit after the tour.

Further on stands the Porte de Paris, a triumphal arch built between 1685 and 1692 to celebrate Lille becoming French, and right behind it the Town Hall, whose belfry rises 104 metres above the city. The belfry is listed by UNESCO with the other belfries of Belgium and France and is a symbol of the city's Flemish roots.

Euralille, the modern face of Lille

The last part of the tour shows a very different Lille. Euralille is the business district built in the 1990s around the Lille-Europe and Lille-Flandres stations, with glass towers, a large shopping centre and modern architecture, including a tower shaped like a ski boot. High-speed trains from here reach Paris in about an hour and Brussels in around 35 minutes, which makes Lille an easy base for exploring the region.

The coach then returns to Place Rihour. The best time for a Lille sightseeing tour is from April to October, when the roof is open in good weather; in December the Christmas market fills the centre. If you are wondering how to get to the meeting point, Place Rihour is a few minutes from the Rihour metro station and the Grand Place.