Vieux Lille Old Town Guided Walking Tour

Palais Rihour

The walk begins at Palais Rihour, the only part of Lille that still shows the city as a court of the Dukes of Burgundy. The palace was built between 1453 and 1473, and what survives after fires and demolitions is a jewel of Flamboyant Gothic: the guardroom, the chapel with its tall windows, and the Salle du Conclave with its painted vaulting, reached by a spiral staircase. The rest of the square is dominated by the war memorial built against the palace wall, and the ground floor houses the city's tourist office, which makes it an easy landmark for a Lille guided walk to start from.

Our guide uses the palace to set the scene: how Lille passed from the counts of Flanders to Burgundy, to the Spanish crown and finally to France in 1667, and why that mixed heritage shows in every facade you will see for the next two hours. Allow about fifteen minutes here before the group moves to the Grand Place a few steps away.

The Grand Place and the Vieille Bourse

The Grand Place is the heart of Lille, a broad square where every side tells a different century. In the middle stands the Column of the Goddess, raised in 1845 to commemorate the city's resistance to the Austrian siege of 1792; around it rise the Art Deco bulk of the former newspaper building, the Grand Garde of 1717 that now houses a theatre, and the gilded facades of the Flemish houses. The star is the Vieille Bourse, the old stock exchange built in 1652 and 1653: twenty-four identical houses around a courtyard, their red brick and carved stone covered in garlands, masks and cherubs.

The courtyard of the Vieille Bourse is the best part of this Lille old town guided tour: on most afternoons second-hand booksellers set out their stalls under the arcades and locals play chess, so you step from the noise of the square into a Renaissance cloister in a few metres. The guide spends about twenty minutes on the square and inside the courtyard.

The Opera House and the Chamber of Commerce belfry

Next door, on Place du Théâtre, two buildings from the early 20th century complete the picture of a city that wanted to look grand. The Opéra de Lille, finished in 1923 after the First World War interrupted its construction, has a neoclassical facade crowded with sculpted muses and a staircase inside copied from the Paris opera. Opposite it the Chamber of Commerce, finished in 1921 in a neo-Flemish style of brick and stone, carries a belfry 76 metres high with a carillon that still rings out over the square; the tower is the most visible landmark when you search for how to get to Vieux Lille from the stations.

The guide explains both facades from the square, including the stories of the merchants who paid for them and the textile wealth that made Lille one of the richest industrial cities in France. From here the route leaves the grand squares and dives into the narrow streets of the old town.

The cobbled streets of Vieux Lille

Vieux Lille is the district north of the Grand Place where the street plan is still medieval and the houses are 17th and 18th century: narrow brick facades with carved stone frames, bay windows and painted shutters along rue de la Monnaie, rue Esquermoise, rue Basse and the little squares between them. This is where the Flemish and French faces of the city meet, and it is also the smartest shopping district, with boutiques, antique dealers, pastry shops selling the city's waffles and merveilleux, and cheese shops stocked with the strong local Maroilles.

The guide leads the group at an easy pace through these lanes for around thirty minutes, pointing out carved details and telling anecdotes about daily life, trade and the sieges the old town survived. Things to do in Lille after the tour mostly begin here: the cafés on the Place aux Oignons and the shops around rue de la Grande-Chaussée are a few steps from the route.

Notre-Dame de la Treille Cathedral and the Hospice Comtesse

At the top of the old town stands Notre-Dame de la Treille, the cathedral of Lille, one of the strangest and most interesting churches in northern France. It was begun in 1854 in neo-Gothic style to house a venerated medieval statue of the Virgin, but the money ran out and the building stayed unfinished for more than a century; the facade was finally completed in 1999 with a translucent sheet of marble that glows from inside when the evening sun strikes it. The tour ends a short walk away beside the Hospice Comtesse, the hospital founded in 1237 by the Countess of Flanders.

The guide explains the cathedral from the square, and you can enter afterwards on your own; the Hospice Comtesse, with its brick wards, Flemish kitchen tiles and collection of furniture, paintings and everyday objects from old Lille, is also well worth the entry fee, which is not included. Both are at their best in the late afternoon light.