02 November 2024

Lille and beyond - 2024

Lille Flandres station
Lille is only around 85 minutes from London by Eurostar train. Lille Europe station, served by Eurostar, is a short walk from Lille Flandres station where local trains depart to destinations including Lens and Armentieres. 

ilevia Metro and Tram network at Lille Europe
Both stations are connected to Metro line 2 (red) from Lomme to Dron which serves Croix, Roubaix and Tourcoing. See appendix for more details about public transport options.

On a visit to Lille, staying at Plaine Images near Roubaix, from Tuesday 10 - Saturday 14 September 2024, a busy schedule for Tim Thomas (on left in photo above) included visits to Croix / Villeneuve d'Ascq (Tuesday), Tourcoing, Roubaix and Croix (Wednesday), Tournai and Kortrijk in Belgium (Wednesday), Lens and Armentieres (Thursday), leaving Saturday to explore Lille. Links for related blog posts (highlighted below) cover:

This post covers: Lens (La Loco); Armentieres (Brasserie Motte Cordonnier) and Lille (L'Illustration).

Lens - La Loco

Tim secured online TER train tickets for 2 euros each way 'Prix Casses Hauts-de-France' by booking in advance using the SNCF Connect app. The outward train was delayed and left late running non-stop to Lens, arriving at 10.40. Times shown on the tickets for Friday 13 September:
  • Out:  9.40       Lille Flandres    a. 10.20 Lens    TER 843212
  • Return: 14.41 Lens     a. 15.20  Lille Flandres  TER 843225 
The walk from the station (photo under heading) via Rue Jean Letienne and then under the railway line at Pont Cesarine with colourful street art to Louvre-Lens Museum took about 40 minutes. This includes several stops to read information boards and take photos on the surfaced path through woodland that follows the route of the old mine railway that led from Pont Cesarine to Pit 9.
From a footbridge across Rue Paul Bert the summit of mining slag heap Terril 74b in Loos-en-Gohelle (UNESCO World Heritage site) is visible beyond the end of the road and Stade Bollaert-Delelis, the home of RC Lens, to the right.
It was nice to see a display of boxed beers and books about beer in the shop of the Louvre-Lens museum. The museum offers free entry to the 3,000 square metre single storey display area 'La Galerie du temps', arranged chronologically, which opened in 2012.
After returning to Lens station, on foot and by bus, the idea of a beer at L'Imbeertinence (above) was thwarted by the explanation that no seats were available and one couldn't drink a beer at the bar.
Continuing towards the Saint-Leger de Lens church, tables were set on Place Jean Jaures in front of the town hall for a Marche Gourmand. Perhaps the participants were all at L'Imbeertinence? Across the street in an art deco style building, confusingly adorned with A la Ville Limoges, the Lens tourism office suggested La LOCO, a brasserie / friterie opposite the station, as another good place to find a beer.
Thankfully, there was an unreserved table inside, near the corner entrance of La LOCO. A draught Brasserie Castelain CH'TI Blonde and a Croque Monsieur made a pleasant lunch. A small dish of nuts and savoury crackers arrived with the beer. The other French draught beer was Brasserie du Pays Flamand Anosteke NEIPA. Other draught beers included: Brasserie Caulier Paix Dieu and Bon Secours Prestige, brewed just across the Belgian border; Cuvee des Trolls; Liefmans Fruitesse; Tripel Karmeliet; Kwak and Rince Cochon Rouge. La LOCO is popular with all ages and the obvious place to stop for a beer before or after a train journey.

Armentieres - Brasserie Motte-Cordonnier

A visit to Brasserie Motte-Cordonnier was inspired by reading a post on The Good Life France titled The sparkling Beer scene in Lille, northern France which featured it as one of three 'brilliant Lille brewers'.
After the luxury of an almost empty train from Lens to Lille Flandres there was only standing space on the 15.39 departure of the TER HDF K70 train to Dunkirk via Armentieres. 
Tim's 4 day / 96 hour ilevia Pass Pass card covered the cost of this journey as Armentieres (in red box above) is just inside the Lille zone for TER validity.
There was a wait near Armentieres station for a bus to the brewery premises again covered by the Pass Pass card.
The brewery is inside an industrial estate at Ruche des 2 Lys and there is only a small sign to indicate the direction.
A table at the entrance featured a display of all the beers available for sale. Most beers are available in 33 cl or 75 cl bottles.
L to R: Julien and Gauthier - Brasserie Motte-Cordonnier
This Friday late afternoon opening (3pm - 7pm) is for sales rather than as a taproom / bar but customers may be offered a beer to sample. The beers are named after members of the family involved with Brasserie Motte-Cordonnier since it was first established in 1650. The brewery closed at its original site nearby in 2008. In 2019 Henry Motte led a family effort to buy back the name and relaunch the brewery.
Julien offered Tim a taste of Fernand, a Saison, after opening a small bottle. A bottle was purchased to drink later, back in the UK (2.75 euros / 33 cl). 
After Gauthier joined Julien behind the table, he kindly offered Tim a taste of the IPA Blanche he was drinking. Brewed with orange and 'Bergamotte', a bottle was purchased (2.75 euro) to enjoy a week later, back in the UK. 
Thanks to Gauthier also for the gift of a bottle of Rene Blonde, enjoyed later that evening. The label includes the award of Medaille d'Or 2023 in the Ale Blonde Francais category of the France Biere Challenge. A bottle of Emile Blonde Triple, a multiple award winner including World Beer Awards Silver (2024) and Bronze (2021) was also purchased and enjoyed back in the UK.
Keep up to date with the brewery, its beers, awards and stockists via its Facebook page. 
The image above, from a Facebook post before the annual 'la Braderie de Lille' in September, shows stockists of Motte-Cordonnier beers for the 2024 Braderie when market stalls are set up and the central streets are closed to motor traffic. The bars and restaurants listed should be good places to find local beers in Lille. 
Although the Brasserie Motte-Cordonnier has not been involved with collaboration beers perhaps there is an opportunity for a UK brewery to suggest this in future?

Lille - L'Illustration


Saturday 14 September 2024 was the first day of La Braderie de Lille weekend and the last day of Tim's stay in France. There were seats on the M2 metro at Alsace Plaine Images but after passing Roubaix it was packed and a struggle to get off at Lille Europe stop as most passengers were staying on for Lille Flandres stop, nearer the Braderie. 
Leaving a backpack, heavy with 3 bottled beers from Brasserie Motte-Cordonnier and 50cl cans of Kasteel Rouge and Pelforth Blonde, at the staffed left luggage office at Lille Europe was a good idea (5.50 euros for 2 - 10 hours).
                         Place du Theatre                  Grand Place                    Place Maurice Schumann
Although the streets in central Lille were crowded there was still some space in the major squares before noon.
For European Bar Guide, Jack Anderton had tweeted from @europebarguide about a visit to L'llustration five days before. Based on this tweet it may end up with a rating higher than A la Sarthe currently topping the 8 Lille bars featured in the Guide.
         BierBuik                         Rue Royale                                             L'Illustration
Tim's mission for today was to follow in Jack's recent footsteps and his slow progress through the crowded streets of Lille brought him to L'Illustration, 18 Rue Royale, at noon, just as the proprietor and his staff were putting tables and chairs out on the pavement before opening up early for La Braderie.
It was a welcome relief to be allowed inside and be able to choose the 'best' seat as the first customer of the day - near the bar and with a view of the busy street outside and BierBuik on the other side of Rue Royale.
For the first beer of the day, 50 cl of draught Silly Pils Bio was served in an attractive plastic glass (5 euros). As this was La Braderie weekend, most bars in central Lille switched to plastic glasses. The design and lettering on this one had the same art nouveau style as the windows and other features of L'Illustration like the pattern on the bentwood bench against the wall. The attractive design made the plastic glass substitution for a real glass less painful!
As the bar was not busy yet, it was nice that Mafalda spared some time from preparing the bar for a chat. After mentioning that I had enjoyed a visit to the Botanic Gardens at Tourcoing, she advised that she used to live in Tourcoing and that her art background was a reason she liked L'Illustration which regularly features displays by local artists with plenty of hanging space on the colourful walls upstairs.
Upstairs at L'Illustration, Lille
After explaining to the proprietor that a friend had recently recommended L'Illustration he responded that he must appreciate good beer! The Trappist beer range at L'Illustration includes Chimay Bleue, Orval, Rochefort 8 and Westmalle Triple all priced at 6 euros for a 33cl bottle.
Belgian draught beers included De Ranke XX Bitter and Adriaen Brouwer Tripel. Cidre Mauret Exra Bio was the draught cider made locally with apples from Picardy and Normandy. Tim's second draught beer was La Thiriez Bio blonde brewed in France, near Dunkirk and the Belgian border.
More customers arrived including a group with cameras and a guy with several vinyl LPs purchased at La Braderie stalls. He was happy to show Tim his haul which included Elton John and Peter Gabriel LPs and the Clockwork Orange soundtrack. Pol-Ewen mentioned that he was from Brittany and had enjoyed a visit to Ardnamurchan and the west coast of Scotland which shares some coastal similarities. Later, Pol-Ewen's friend arrived and they posed for a photo.
When Tim's glass was empty, the friendly proprietor brought over a sample of draught Cuvee des Jonquilles brewed by Brasserie au Baron 20 km east of Valenciennes and only 100 metres from Belgium! It's a fresh and floral Biere de Garde with the attributes of a strong Saison. This led to a 25cl serving as the third and final beer here.
After 5 days in France and Belgium alone and with only a few social exchanges, this visit to L'Illustration, meeting friendly people in a relaxed environment, was a memorable highlight of the trip. However at 2.15pm it was time to say goodbye from a new favourite place. 
    Le Kremlin, Rue Doudin     Cathedrale Notre-Dame-de-la-Treille        Parc Henri Matisse    
A hurried jog, without any assistance from inaccessible Google maps, to Lille Europe station to retrieve luggage and board Eurostar involved several changes of direction and delays due to crowded streets but luckily Tim knew where to aim for and he wasn't the last in the queue to check in at 2.45pm.
After an 85 minute train journey and regaining an hour for the time difference, Tim was back at St Pancras International before 4pm.

Appendix - public transport options

Details of the ilevia Pass Pass card for travel in Lille can be found in the appendix of a previous 2024 post - Tournai and Kortrijk which also includes information about trains from Lille to Belgium.

The SNCF Connect app is useful for purchasing tickets to destinations outside the Lille area e.g. Lens.



13 October 2024

Croix, Lille

Visits to Croix and adjoining communes, in September 2024 by Tim Thomas, were inspired by reading a post on The Good Life France titled The sparkling Beer scene in Lille, northern France. This included a section on Brasserie Cambier, one of three 'brilliant Lille brewers' featured.

Without a car or a bicycle, all travel to visit Brasserie Cambier in Croix and nearby Heavy Brique, a Brique House taproom, just across the southern boundary of Croix in Villeneuve-d'Asque, was by public transport and on foot.
Croix - accessible via M2 metro and R tram from Lille and Roubaix
Croix is about 3 km southwest of Roubaix and Croix is also bordered by Wasquehal to the west and Villeneuve-d'Ascq to the south. Croix is about 7 km northeast of the centre of Lille and is part of  the Metropole Europeenne de Lille (MEL).

Ilévia is the public transport operator for the Lille Métropole, the metropolitan area surrounding the city of Lille in northern France. It operates a mixed system, comprising buses, trams and a driverless light metro system. Photos above show the platform at Croix Centre metro station and a tram at the southern end of Parc Barbieux between Villa Cavrois and Bol d'Air stops.

Heavy Brique


In the extreme north of Villeneuve-d'Ascq commune, this Brique House taproom / restaurant is located within La Maillerie building at 132 All. des Mannequins. 
The ground floor of Heavy Brique (HTSM) is open all year. In summer months it's supplemented by a popular rooftop bar separated from the ground floor by a multi-storey garage. Opening hours are 12 noon-12 midnight (Mon-Sat) and 10.45 - 15.00 hrs (Sunday).
The ground floor premises with glass windows has a large 850 square metre floor area and high ceilings. It has several different areas and can accommodate up to 300 people with seating at a mix of bar stools, small tables, some large tables and a lounge area. 
The best way to get an idea of the size of the place is to watch a video from the Brique House website made to promote the venue for private hire. The website also includes interior photos.
The long bar has 30 beer taps set in a wall behind and there is a separate food bar.
Tim visited on a wet Tuesday evening after a ride on the R2 tram (green line) from its northern terminus, Roubaix Euroteleport to Bol d'Air, near the southern end of Parc Barbieux, followed by a 1 kilometer walk westwards.
Arriving soon before the end of the daily 5pm-7pm 'Happy Hour', a 50cl glass of Superdelic Wanderlust NEIPA, reduced from 7.50 to 6 euros, a collaboration between Brique House and Berlin's Unverhopft, was the first beer of the trip, enjoyed at a small table by a side end of the bar. 
Instead of a printed menu, it's necessary to find menu details online using a QR code on the table. After explaining this, the waiter later returned to take the order for Chicken Maroilles, prepared with a sauce made with Maroilles cheese, a strong smelling cow's milk cheese, which is locally produced and supplied in rectangular form. 
He soon returned as the dish was not available and instead Flemish Carbonnade was ordered (16.90 euros). The beef stew was served on a board with salad and fries and a basket of bread. A tasty and satisfying first meal of the trip. There are nine 'sharing' items, 3 salads and 15 items in 'The Brewery' section of the menu to choose from.
Free standing tall fridges have bottles of Brique House beer to take away after payment at the bar. Tim chose 33cl bottles of Chateau Binouze (Saison, 3.40 euros) and Super Coron (Belgian pale ale, 2.50 euros) to take back to his holiday accommodation at Plaine Images and enjoy later that evening. This destination was reached after a ten minute walk to Croix-Centre metro station and a ride on the M2 metro (red line) just beyond Roubaix to the Alsace - Plaine Images stop.
Other Brique House taprooms are located in: 
Lille, near Lille Flandres and Lille Europe stations - Hein Brique House - includes a microbrewery;
Saint-Andre-Lez-Lille, 5 km north of Lille Flandres - Brique Land - pizza menu;
Paris, near Grands Boulevards metro - Brique Machine;
Reims - Brique House;
Bordeaux - Back Yard Brique House
The Brique House brewery is at Motherland, on an industrial estate 10 km southeast of Lille Flandres.

La Maillerie and La Branche de Croix

La Maillerie project - image from www.lamaillerie.fr/le-projet
The large area of new buildings that links Villeneuve d'Ascq and Croix includes the Maillerie building with its rooftop garden in the north east corner of the site. A video, La Maillerie 2019, shows the previous buildings on the site and its transformation into the concept illustrated above. Since 1852 it was the site of the Holden company until its demise. Founded in Roubaix in 1932, as a wool spinning mill, the 3 Suisses redeveloped the site in 1956. The company became a giant in mail order catalogues and later online sales of clothing and furniture. The project website includes a site history page with further details. A concurrent development that reaches to the north west corner of the La Maillerie site is the revival of 'La Branche de Croix'. 
Photos from a related post on Twitter / X by Metropole Lille / MEL
A post by Lille Actu reported that with its inauguration in Wasquehal on 4 October 2024, the 'dead arm' of the Roubaix canal - La Branche de Croix - has found a new life with a green space spanning Wasquehal, Croix and Villeneuve d'Ascq. The 30 million euro project, which started in 2022, included cleaning of the canal bed and removal of polluted sediments, restoration of the banks, new quays and four new footbridges. 


Brasserie Cambier


The Brasserie Cambier bar and shop is open Wednesday to Saturday. Hours are 4pm - 10pm (Wed-Fri) and 10am - 8pm (Sat).
It's situated 700 metres north west of Croix-Centre metro station along the tree-lined Rue de la Gare and just beyond a water tower.
Tim arrived on Wednesday at 18.30 hrs and found that both inside and outside spaces were busy.
The bar area includes windows into the brewery, seating and a darts board to the right of the entrance.
Tim's first draught beer (La Dame Jeanne - 25cl / 3.60 euros) was brewed in collaboration with La Dame Jeanne Craft Beer Shop & Bar, situated about 4 kilometres north of the brewery, near the Trois Suisses stop of the T tram (blue line) from Lille to Tourcoing.
From an initial rather windy and chilly standing position outside, Tim came inside to order his second beer and found a stool to perch on, by a handy shelf, with a view of the bar. 
The draught Brasserie Cambier NEIPA Mosaic / El Dorado (25 cl / 4 euros) was hazy and juicy and less dry than the previous beer.
It's nice when a brewery features colourful original artwork on their labels and also displays it on the walls. 
Brasserie Cambier also has a colourful 'Library of Sensations' wall of painted wooden modules by Floriane Dupont, the Lille based artist who has designed artwork for Brasserie Cambier labels since 2021 and provides a selection of these as free downloads from a link on the fl0uk website.
A view through the window into the brewery shows there is a high standard of shiny equipment.
Tim shared his shelf from the bar with a display of bottles and cans available from the brewery shop. 
The Mongy range of staple beers from Cambier takes its name from Alfred Mongy 'an emblematic figure from the 2nd industrial revolution, who gave his name to the Lille metropolitan area tramway which passes through the town of Croix'. The Cambier range is made up exclusively of limited edition beers.
The brewery website also explains that its logo is 'inspired by the brewer's star: it is a symbolic representation of brewing alchemy involving the four elements (water, fire, earth, air)'.
The blackboard behind the bar includes sections for A Emporter (take away) beers and Merch. 
Always keen to find a Saison, Tim ordered a 33cl bottle of Mongy Saison Bio and a 33cl can of Saison Pebranle (a collab beer with Daddy Brew based in Waziers, 40 km south of Croix) to enjoy later.
Leaving after about an hour and a half, the sky to the north looked ominous but it remained dry for the walk back to Croix-Centro metro via Gare de la Rue.

Visit Heavy Brique and Brasserie Cambier


From Wednesday to Saturday it's possible to combine visits to Heavy Brique and Brasserie Cambier.
Marked with orange squares on the map above, both are an easy walk from Croix-Centro metro (M2 red line). To avoid doubling back, since the opening of La Branche de Croix, it must be possible to combine the path along the newly landscaped stretch of the canal bank from Rue de Professeur Perrin at the east end to the bridge at Avenue Georges Hannart further west.

The eastern part of Croix


72 Bd. du General de Gaulle, Roubaix. Photo: Pymouss 
https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:Roubaix_-_Boulevard_du_G%C3%A9n%C3%A9ral_de_Gaulle_72.jpg
The R tram (Green line) runs beside the handsome houses and mansions of Bd du General de Gaulle on the west and the green spaces of Parc Barbieux on the east, dividing urban, commercial and industrial Croix on the the west from the leafier, affluent, residential areas of Croix on the east.
Before heading to Brasserie Cambier, Tim walked around the eastern part of Croix visiting Parc Mallet-Stevens and later getting a glimpse of the majestic Villa Cavrois from the rear entrance (architect: Robert Mallet-Stevens). 
With its broad, tree-lined streets and detached houses set behind hedges and security gates, this area with streets and avenues named after Winston Churchill, President J F Kennedy and Robert Schuman, must be where the Lille elite enjoy their leisure time.