Vieux Lille and the Grand'Place

Palais Rihour

The last 15th-century fragments of a ducal palace, tucked behind a 19th-century rebuild.

You're at Place Rihour, in front of a building most people pass without a second look. The facade facing the square is not medieval. After two fires, the palace was pulled down in 1846 and rebuilt over the following eleven years in a neo-Renaissance style by the architect Charles Benvignat. The real survivors sit behind it.

Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, began this palace in 1453, and it was finished in 1473. The only original Flamboyant Gothic fabric left is the chapel, now called the salle du Conclave, and the spiral staircase. Both came through the fire of 23 April 1916 that destroyed the town hall around them. The chapel had served as the city magistrates' meeting room since 1684; today the tourist office occupies the old guard room.

The chapel opens on weekdays, morning and afternoon, and stays shut at weekends, so if this is a weekday, step inside and look up at the ribbed vault. Head north from here to the Grand'Place, one short block away.

Place du Général-de-Gaulle

Lille's pedestrian Grand'Place and the Vieille Bourse, whose courtyard fills with secondhand books most afternoons.

This is the Grand'Place, the city's main square, officially the Place du Général-de-Gaulle. Since January 2026 the whole square has been permanently pedestrian, so you can cross it without watching for cars, though bicycles still come through at walking pace. The Vieille Bourse sits on the north side. It was built between 1652 and 1653 by Julien Destrée, when Lille belonged to the Spanish Netherlands.

The city's merchants had asked King Philip IV of Spain for the right to build a trading exchange on the Grand'Place, and the result was a quadrangle of 24 private houses around a public courtyard. Step through the archway into that courtyard. On most afternoons from Tuesday to Sunday, secondhand book dealers set up under the arcades with old novels, comics, posters, and postcards. The market is closed on Mondays.

Look up as you walk the gallery: each facade carries its own carved figures. Leave the square on its north side, toward the opera house.

Opéra de Lille

A neo-classical opera house from 1913, best admired from Place du Théâtre.

You're on Place du Théâtre, facing the Opera de Lille. The building went up between 1907 and 1913 to a plan by Louis Marie Cordonnier, but the First World War intervened and the first French season opened only in 1923, which makes it young by this quarter's standards. The style is neo-classical, with classical proportions and sculpture set into the facade. This is an outside visit.

The opera house runs its full season of performances, but guided tours of the interior take place only on the second Saturday of each month, so unless today is that day, take in the building from the square. After a long renovation, the opera reopened in December 2003 and now covers a range from baroque to contemporary work. Cross back over the Grand'Place, which is just behind you to the south, and leave it by its northwest corner onto Rue Esquermoise.