Previously visited in September 2024, Roubaix is part of the Métropole Européenne de Lille.
Arriving by Eurostar at Lille Europe station on 21 October, 2026, it was easy to transfer to the Metro (M2) for a 15 stop, 21 minute ride to Gare Jean Lebas Roubaix passing Wasquehal and Croix. The automated metro trains travel above ground for part of the route.
Our
B&B Hotel Lille Roubaix Campus Gare offered good value and a convenient location near the Metro and SNCF stations.
PXL Brewery
Making use of a 24 hour
Ilevia ticket (€5.70), another Metro ride took us from Roubaix to Tourcoing Centre soon after we had checked in at the hotel.
PXL Brewery, at 9 Rue de Lille, is a short walk from the Metro station and we passed St Christopher church and the Grand Place en route.
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| Monsieur Paon - La Blonde du Paon |
Arriving at 5.20pm, we were the only customers and chose a table near the entrance with a view of a retro gaming station, the staircase and the near-end of the simple wooden bar.
The draft menu featured a cider and three beers. We ordered 25cl glasses of Pixel Brewery Simon Fache and
Monsieur Paon La Blonde du Paon (Kveik).
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| Pixel Brewery - Simon Fache |
The
Pixel brewery taproom has been open for two years according to the friendly barman. Music playing during our visit included tracks by Oasis and Amy Winehouse.
It caters well for retro gaming fans and evidence of this includes the artwork on the walls.
Brasserie Brewbaix
The blackboard in the window of
Brasserie Brewbaix gives open evenings as Wednesday to Friday, but it was closed on the Wednesday we visited, perhaps because there was a
Lille v Galatasaray Champions League football match?
No matter, we were able to visit a day later.
The blackboard on the wall by the small corner bar listed four draught beers.
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| Infini&Tea (4% ABV, 33cl) Brebis Galeuse Triple (8.5% ABV, 33cl) |
The beers we enjoyed here were Infini&Tea Party, Brebis Galeuse Blonde and Brebis Galeuse Triple. Jerome, at the bar. used to brew here but now concentrates on the taproom and business side of the brewery.
Jerome recommended a visit to
Thiriez Hop Fest in Esquelbecq after we mentioned that we would be visiting
Poperinge bierfestival.
Brebis Galeuse is the Brasserie Brewbaix brand for Belgian style beers. The literal translation is mangy ewe but the equivalent meaning is black sheep or bad apple.
Situated at the back, the brewery vessels are barely separated from the front taproom seating area.
Near our table, a temporary wall of kegs forms a barrier with pallets of bottles beyond.
The Brasserie Brewbaix taproom is one of the reasons that make a trip on the Metro from Lille to Roubaix Grand Place worthwhile.
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| Roubaix Grand Place |
Jb's Pub
With it's coloured lighting effects and chill music, Jb's pub seems more like a club.
After ordering at the bar we found a table at the back, beyond a large screen showing the Lille v Galatasaray football match. A complimentary small dish of peanut mix was included.
The ten draught beers from France and Belgium are listed with their strengths on a blackboard.
Tim enjoyed
La Goudale Blonde from a goblet (33cl, €5) and a taste of Meg's Brasserie Duyck
La Bise Blonde from a La Cadette branded glass (33cl, €4).
The laminated beer menu also includes four respected Belgian bottled beers (€5).
Brasserie Le Metropole
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| Brasserie Le Metropole |
Brasserie Le Metropole is located on a corner at 5 Grand Place, opposite the Hotel de Ville and near Eglise Saint-Martin de Roubaix.
Arriving at 8.30pm, all the tables were laid for diners but we were shown to a table with a view of the kitchen and the small bar and could order beers without a meal.
Draught beers included a hoppy Saison,
Brasserie Tandem Pin Pon and
Brasserie Les Crapauds Fous Blonde served in a glass with the brewery's toad logo.
The Brasserie Tandem glass features a large exclamation mark and one-eyed stick characters in a variety of colours. We were too late for the Happy Hour offer on 50cl glasses between 4pm and 7pm mentioned on a blackboard which also listed the draught beers including Triporteur Triple, La Chouffe Blonde and St Bernardus Triple.
Sans Couture (Les Trois Tricoteurs)
At 7 Rue du Chemin du Fer,
Les 3 Tricoteurs is accessed through a central street entrance that leads to an annexe beyond a courtyard. The workshop bar is open from Tuesday to Saturday.
Sans Couture clothing items, including socks, are made in the workshop that is separated from the bar by a glass wall.
The bar offers four draught beers along with several bottles that include Boon Kriek and Low Alcohol beers.
It was good to see a '
New French IPA' from local brewery
Cambier available on draught.
Meg ordered this while Tim chose
PVL La Triple by
Brasserie du Pavé based at Ennevelin, south of Lille. This was sweet and luscious and a favourite beer for Tim on this trip.
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| Villa Cavrois, Croix |
There was music playing from a radio station and the bar space was busy when we arrived at 6.30pm on Thursday after an interesting day that had included a tram journey in order to visit to
Villa Cavrois.
Posters on the wall of Les 3 Tricoteurs feature the annual Paris - Roubaix cycle race and
La Condition Publique, a local cultural centre.
La Piscine
No visit to Roubaix is complete without a visit to
La Piscine. The former swimming pool has been converted to an art museum.
We visited on Friday morning and exhibits included a 'La Piscine' sock from Les Trois Tricoteurs and a graphic of a Roubaix clothing factory. (
Roubaix was once known as the 'French Manchester'.)
Meals in Roubaix
Shout outs to the three establishments we visited for meals during our two night stay in Roubaix:
Au Pain Chaud - a small cafe where we enjoyed two breakfasts and lunchtime filled baguettes. The delightful owner aims to please and if you are not in a hurry this is a good place for a simple meal near Gare Jean Lebas. Merci!
La Petite Mezzanine - a restaurant with a menu that includes Cous Cous dishes.
The bottled beer range includes Leffe Ruby and Leffe Blond.
Le Master Naan - A fast food establishment with dining tables at the Grand Place.
We enjoyed quick service and good value here on Wednesday night. The cook's black t-shirt had the message 'Not from Paris Madame' in bold white letters on the back! (No beer is served here.)
Onward travel to Belgium
Roubaix and Tourcoing are stops on the regular train service from Lille to Antwerp via Courtrai / Kortrijk and Ghent. Our plans to travel from Roubaix to Ypres / Ieper via Kortrijk were thwarted by Saturday's stormy weather. We were able to walk to La Piscine before Storm Austen arrived in strength with heavy rain and strong winds. We returned to Au Pain Chaud for a lunchtime baguette during a lull in the storm. However, at 2pm the short walk into Roubaix Jean Lebas station was a battle against the elements!
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| Roubaix Jean Lebas station waiting area |
We used an old subway to reach the departure platform. At 2.15pm our 2.19pm train was marked as 1hr retard so we traipsed back through the subway with our cases to the station's large covered area which only had about 12 seats, all occupied. There were no railway staff, just the 'security' man. At about 2.45pm, the display screens were switched off and the security man said rail services were suspended due to the weather. No indication about how long they would be suspended for!
Thanks to previous research, confirmed by Google maps, Tim was aware of another way to get to Ypres / Ieper so we lugged our cases down to the Metro station and paid €1.90 each for single tickets (valid on multiple
ilevia modes for an hour) to Pont de Neuville, a station on a traffic intersection north of Tourcoing. We waited in a bus shelter for half an hour for the delayed French 82 bus (destination Armentieres station) and thankfully our tickets were still valid. We travelled as far as Douane stop in Halluin then pulled our cases a few hundred metres over an invisible border to Menen inside Belgium and waited 20 minutes for the Belgian
De Lijn 82 bus (€3 by debit card for ticket) to Menen station. After another 20 minute wait we were able to catch the
SNCB train to Ypres (from Kortrijk etc). The young ticket inspector queried our
SNCB international ticket from Roubaix to Ypres (€5.40 each with Belgian SNCB
Train+ subscription and 65+ age) but when we explained about our route he was friendly and was uncomplimentary about French railways cancelling trains while Belgian trains were still running! Arriving at Ypres we had to wait 10 minutes before the rain had eased enough to make the walk to our accommodation bearable. We will remember
Storm Austen!
The bottled beer range includes Leffe Ruby and Leffe Blond.
We enjoyed quick service and good value here on Wednesday night. The cook's black t-shirt had the message 'Not from Paris Madame' in bold white letters on the back! (No beer is served here.)
