It’s hard to believe I lived in Lille 35 years ago and had never gone back, so when some friends were getting married in Belgium, we thought we’d take the opportunity to drive over and see how the city had changed in the intervening years. We therefore needed a hotel with parking and chose this one.
It’s fair to say that the hotel itself isn’t in the prettiest of areas, and there aren’t that many things to do in the immediate vicinity, however, it’s 5-10 minutes from the nearest metro stop, and even less to the L1 bus which runs every 10 minutes during the day and is three stops from the centre. And it seemed safe enough to walk around at night. We walked to Place Rihour a couple of times, which took about 30 minutes, but we were stopping to look at things on the way, such as the Porte de Paris and the Belfry, but usually we took the metro or bus.
Our room was very small (we’ve had bigger cabins on cruise ships), perhaps we should have looked at upgrading, but it was clean and had everything we needed. There was just enough hanging space for the two of us and we were very happy once we’d worked out how to make a cuppa with the coffee machine (we’re very pro-European, but can also be very British loving our tea!) The wifi was very good too. We never bothered to get the safe fixed.
The shower room was surprisingly large for the size of the bedroom and it had a very nice shower. The room faced onto the street, but the double glazing was very efficient, so we weren’t bothered by noise. One day, the chambermaid forgot the plastic glasses and to replenish the coffee, but my English speaking husband went down and sorted it very quickly. It is a shame that the glasses in the bathroom were plastic, rather than glass.
We were there Mon-Fri, but never noticed the spa, nor how it was accessed. It's fair to say that reviews saying that the jacuzzi was at a separate charge made us less interested.
One evening, we couldn’t be bothered going into town, so decided to eat in the hotel restaurant, which was reasonably priced with good service and a lovely atmosphere. My husband said his salmon could have been cooked a little longer, but apart from that, we both enjoyed the meal. We were glad to have booked as it was full on the evening we ate there.
On our first night, we went to a nearby Lebanese restaurant, ten minutes walk, Layalina, which we'd highly recommend.
Lille itself is a great place to explore for a few days and being ardent remainers in the referendum debate, we were absolutely thrilled to hear the Chamber of Commerce’s bells playing Ode to Joy every hour (the EU anthem). less