So this year we thought we would try travelling to a ski resort via Lille instead of Paris.

Yesterday Eurostar cancelled all trains to Paris, so St Pancras was even more rammed than ususal.

It turns out that if you don’t mind spending an extra day it is cheaper to overnight in Lille than the Premier Inn at St Pancras so here we are with an afternoon to explore Lille.

It is a lovely afternoon in Lille with all kinds of weird stuff going on.

We walked to the Citadel https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citadel_of_Lille which seems to be both an active military base, and an ancient monument. This leads to load of tourists wandering casually past these signs.

Everyone else seems to think it is summer

While we walk around in snow boots.

Back into the old town. Tempted by this place.

But ended up in the only place with decent vegan options drinking beer made from stale bread.

https://pain-de-minuit.com/biere-au-pain.php