Our annual practice day took us to Lille
Our annual practice day took us to Lille, on an early Eurostar from St Pancras. Worth every minute of the 5am alarms.
The morning took us through the old town, from Notre-Dame-de-la-Treille to the Vieille Bourse, the Grand'Place, the Chamber of Commerce belfry and the Opera. Seeing them alongside the history that shaped them gave us a different understanding of the buildings, and as architects that is exactly what we came for.
All that walking gave us a good appetite, and lunch at Estaminet Chez La Vieille answered the call, with a carbonnade flamande and the rest of the northern French cuisine - as telling about the region as the architecture had been all morning.
A huge thank you to Hello Lille Destination and to our guide Julien, who showed us round and made the morning what it was. Thank you also to everyone who sent recommendations before we went. We have a list for next time.
No trip is complete without a hitch. Ours was a delay on the French side for the return journey, which turned the journey home into a race across London for a train home that nobody had trained for, but helped work off some of lunch.