Northern France - Lille

The northern town of Lille, which awaits only about an hour train ride away from Paris, is one of those places I never really felt too excited about whenever I heard people go "Lille is really nice, you should go!". Why is that? Well, let me see, perhaps because it always rains in northern France! And if it doesn't, at the very least it's cloudy and grey. This is the number one reason why, if given the choice, we are much rather south-bound. But I'm glad this time we went for it. Against all the odds we visited Lille in the end of January, which probably is the worst (read: rainy and cold) time of the year to do so, but we decided to give it a go anyway. 

So what happened is the weather totally lived up to its reputation meanwhile the town itself was actually a really pleasant surprise. We throughly enjoyed our walk along its pretty streets, tasting the world renowned flat waffles (two thumbs up!) and lunching the local way. Sure it would've been even better in more pleasant temperatures, but you can't have everything. Speaking of food - they fry everything in the north. And by everything I mean we didn't see a dish that wasn't fried all weekend! So the local foods may start feel a tad heavy after a few days...and if you add all the pastries and the brews, well, let's just say it's nice to eat a salad again ;). 

Here are the pictures, and as you will probably see, the very best part of Lille was the beautiful architecture and all those tiny streets with their small shops/ coffees. And if this is Lille, wonder what the more famous northern town of Bruges (Belgium) is like...