GETTING TO LILLE

Transport Options

Getting to and from Lille. Obviously, you’ll have booked what you’ve booked. Just some general observations. Gare Lille-Europe (Eurostar) is fairly central and on the Metro (line M2/red), about a three-minute walk/one Metro stop, from Gare Lille-Flandres, the regional hub. If you’re heading back on Eurostar, the actual international part of the station is quite small, so expect to queue. UK (and French) passport checks are done there.

There’s the usual Eurostar advice to arrive early but, in my experience, they don’t actually open the gate until 45 minutes before the departure time.

The actual main station has all the usual facilities: toilets (paid), a Relay newsagents/tabac, a Paul boulangerie (reasonable sandwiches), a couple of other shops, a bar and lots of car hire offices. Truthfully it’s a fairly draughty concrete hall of a place! Built simply to serve high speed trains.

If you are there really early for your departure there’s a nice bar/cafe – Noya Lille Europe – just outside the station. Walk to the far end of the station from the Eurostar gate, where the hire car offices are, go up the stairs to street level, and turn back on yourself.

Once through security, the lounge is small with a tiny ‘Relay’ booth: basic sandwiches, drinks, confectionary and cigarettes. There are (free) toilets. No Duty Free. If you have Carte Blanche Eurostar status there’s a small roped off section with a coffee machine and bottled water. There’s an area where you can do your Tax Free reclaims.

If you’re travelling by bus (Flixbus, BlaBlaCar Bus, etc.) they stop and pick-up outside Lille-Europe.

Rail expert The Man in Seat 61 has a really good guide to the stations here.

By Road

If you’re arriving by ferry or Eurotunnel, it’s all fairly obvious.

If you arrive in Calais starving (!) head to the boulangerie next to Calais Vins for great sandwiches.

However, be aware that the major roads that approach and go through the city often have variable and/or constantly changing speed limits. So, you can quickly go from 130kph to 110 to 90 to 70. And there are lots of cameras which are quite hard to spot (Waze is pretty good). As stated elsewhere street parking in Lille is paid for in the centre. And there are quite a few, very central, underground car parks, for example underneath Grand’Place.

A better option would be to park at the 4 Cantons Metro station (free) and then take the Metro into the centre.

To be honest driving around Lille is getting harder and harder. There’s lots of pedestrianisation, and new bus and cycle lanes. I imagine with the Tour in town, it will be near impossible.

Crit Air sticker. If you are bringing your car in the city you will need a Crit Air Vignette (pollution). You can purchase them online here.

And remember post-Brexit the rules on passport validity are being enforced. Your passport must:

have a ‘date of issue’ less than 10 years before the date you arrive
have an ‘expiry date’ at least 3 months after the date you plan to leave the Schengen (France) area

And at French border control, you may need to: