France in a Day - Take the train from London to Lille

In under two hours on the smart Eurostar train from London’s stunningly renovated St Pancras station, Lille has everything you could wish for on a day out or short break. Think great food, excellent shopping, attractive architecture that reflects a long history, a fascinating museum and one of France’s finest art galleries.

Everything you want to see is within walking distance of Lille Europe station, from where it’s an easy stroll into the city.

En route you might want to drop in to Les Trois Brasseurs opposite Lille’s other railway station, and taste one of the rather good beers that this friendly micro-brewery has to offer.

With fountains splashing at her feet, the Goddess atop her column reigns over the busy shops and pavement cafés of the Grand’ Place – official title Place du Général de Gaulle. Lille was the General’s birthplace.

An elegant square of tall, imposing, colour-washed buildings, every September the Grand’ Place plays host to the Braderie, a gigantic street market that spills out into the surrounding streets and attracts bargain-hunting visitors by the thousand. Come in December and you’ll find it in Christmas spirit.

There’s a decidedly Spanish feel to the architecture on one corner of the Grand’ Place. The Vieille Bourse, a square of 24 identical 17th-century shop-houses decorated in baroque extravaganza with caryatids, cherubs, garlands and cornucopias of fruit, was built in the days when Lille was under Spanish rule.

Flemish merchants traded their high-quality cloth here. Now sellers of second-hand books line the shaded gallery and chess players ponder in the courtyard. Walk through it and you’ll find yourself facing the sumptuous Opera House.

A maze of meandering cobbled streets make up the wonderful ‘old quarter’ of Lille, packed with myriad little shops and lovely buildings.

Along rue des Chats Bossus you’ll find A L’Huîtrière, arguably the world’s most elegant fishmonger. Rue Esquermoise is foodie heaven. At number 27, the Belle Epoque salon de thé and patisserie, Méert, is famed for its gaufrettes that, it’s said, the young de Gaulle was unable to say ‘non’ to.

Tear yourself away from the shops – hard to do, their windows are endlessly appealing – and head for the atmospheric Musée de l’Hospice Comtesse on the rue de la Monnaie.

The hospital, founded in 1237 by the Countess Jeanne of Flanders, has a magnificent 15th-century barrel-vaulted roof in the patients’ ward, walls tiled in blue and white, a collection of Flemish and Dutch art and displays of 15th to 17th century furniture, tapestry and china.

Lille’s cathedral is a must-see, too. Combining 20th-century art styles in its decoration - well over a century in the building, it was only completed in 1999 - Notre Dame de la Treille is stunning. And with the city’s Fine Art collection rated the second in France after the Louvre, the Palais des Beaux Arts will be on every art-lover’s visiting list.

If you’re making a short break out of your visit to Lille, be sure to head out to Roubaix, a 20-minute Metro ride away.

The Musée d’Art et d’Industrie there may have a boring name but it’s a brilliantly imaginative museum of art, textiles and ceramics housed in an Art Deco former swimming pool. Statues surround the water, paintings hang among tiles in changing rooms, sculptures are displayed around baths. La Piscine really is unmissable.

If you’re there over a weekend, the lively and colourful Wazemmes market in a Lille suburb (Metro Line 1, Gambetta stop) is a Sunday morning institution.

Finally, should you still have room for a little shopping, en route for the station visit EuraLille, the massive, modern shopping centre with big name stores and a hypermarket where there are bargains to be found along the food and drink aisles. From there it’s a relatively short distance to get your trophies to the train.