One of the virtues of rail travel is that you end up breaking your journey in city centres rather than windswept airports miles from anywhere. As we mentioned last week we had something of an 8-hour stopover in Lille city centre on our way back from the UK and had a good time sight-seeing.
Having had a very satisfactory lunch – there are innumerable restaurants – we went to the magnificent Palais des Beaux-Arts. In this case the word ‘palace’ is not an exaggeration, as you can see from the photos.
Lingering in our minds is some sort of claim from someone that it’s the best art gallery outside Paris. We’re not prepared to dispute the claim. Even though some of the rooms were closed there was an enormous richness of art.
One particularly striking feature was that given the large scale of the building there was no sense of feeling cramped and pictures had space about them. There’s a wide range of material on display, including medieval works of art (sculptures, reliquary boxes, etc) in the basement.
One particularly distinctive exhibition is the floor displaying 3D representations of towns, made in the 17th century. They were for military purposes but give a remarkable insight into the urban structures of the time, which are displayed in enormous detail.
So, we very much enjoyed Lille, and have no problems about another protracted stopover in the future. It’s certainly very convenient to get on the train there and four hours later get off in Angoulême. And the train is environmentally friendly.
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