Lille

For other uses, see Lille (disambiguation).

A street in Lille

Coat of arms

Lille is a city in the north of France with a population of about 226,800 inhabitants. It is the capital of the region Hauts-de-France and the Nord

department., and is not far from the border with Belgium, where in Dutch it is called Rijsel. About two million people live in the urban area (conurbation) shared with Kortrijk and Tournai, which is the fifth largest in France behind Paris, Lyon, Marseille, and Toulouse.

The Old Stock Exchange and the belfry of the Trade Chamber

Climate

Lille has an oceanic climate (Cfb in the Koeppen climate classification).

Education

• École pour l'informatique et les nouvelles technologies
• École spéciale de mécanique et électricité
• EDHEC Business School
• E-Artsup
• IÉSEG School of Management
• Institut catholique d'arts et métiers
• Institut supérieur européen de gestion group
• Institut supérieur européen de formation par l'action

An Eurostar high-speed train at Lille-Europe station.

Transport

There are two big railway stations in Lille with many trains to and from different places around France and Belgium. Most of these serve Lille-Flandres station and are operated by SNCF, including the TGV high-speed service. The other big station, Lille-Europe, has Eurostar trains to and from Brussels, Paris, and St Pancras station in London via the Channel Tunnel to the United Kingdom.

Public transport in Lille is made up of buses, two metro lines, and two tram lines to the nearby towns of Tourcoing and Roubaix. The metro system is one of the first in the world that does not have drivers.

Sister cities

Lille is twinned with:

Liège, Belgium, since 1958 Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg, since 1958 Turin, Italy, since 1958 Rotterdam, Netherlands, since 1958 Cologne, Germany, since 1958 Leeds, United Kingdom, since 1968 Saint-Louis, Senegal, since 1978 Kharkiv, Ukraine, since 1978

Valladolid, Spain, since 1987 Safed, Israel, since 1988 Buffalo, United States, since 1988 Erfurt, Germany, since 1989 Nablus, Palestinian National Authority, since 1998 Oujda, Morocco, since 2005 Haïfa, Israel, since 2008 Wrocław, Poland, since 2009