About Lille
Climate
Lille can be described as having a temperate oceanic climate; summers normally do not reach high average temperatures, but winters can fall below freezing temperatures, but with averages quite a bit above the freezing mark. Precipitation is plentiful year round.
Average temperature in June is 20.9 °C.
Transportation:
Railways
Lille is an important crossroads in the European high-speed rail network. It lies on the Eurostar line to London (1:20 hour journey).
The French TGV network also puts it only 1 hour from Pari CDG Airport, 38 minutes from Brussels and connects to other major centres in France such as Marseille, Lyon, and Toulouse.
Lille has two railway stations, which stand next door to one another: Lille-Europe station (Gare de Lille-Europe), which primarily serves high-speed trains and international services (Eurostar), and Lille-Flandres station (Gare de Lille-Flandres), which primarily serves lower speed regional trains and regional Belgian trains.
Highways
Five autoroutes pass by Lille, the densest confluence of highways in France after Paris:
- Autoroute A27 : Lille – Tournai – Brussels / Liège – Germany
- Autoroute A23 : Lille – Valenciennes
- Autoroute A1 : Lille – Arras – Paris / Reims – Lyon / Orléans / Le Havre
- Autoroute A25 : Lille – Dunkirk – Calais – England / North Belgium
- Autoroute A22 : Lille – Antwerp – Netherlands
Important: Free parking is available for the SERGS 2017 participants at the Lille University premises.
Air traffic
Lille Lesquin International Airport is 15 minutes from the city centre by car (11 km).
Its passenger traffic, around 1.2 millions a year in 2010, is modest due to the proximity to Brussels, Charleroi, and Paris-CDG airports. The airport mostly connects other French and European cities (some with low cost companies) as well as Mediterranean destinations.
Main sights
Lille features an array of architectural styles with various amounts of Flemish influence, including the use of brown and red brick. In addition, many residential neighborhoods, especially in Greater Lille, consist of attached 2–3 story houses aligned in a row, with narrow gardens in the back.
Points of interest include
- Lille Cathedral (Basilique-cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-la-Treille)
- Citadel of Lille
- Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille
- Jardin botanique de la Faculté de Pharmacie
- Jardin botanique Nicolas Boulay
- Jardin des Plantes de Lille
Source: Wikipedia