Lille-Roubaix, the City that Re-identified Itself 

The former industrial city of Roubaix is located in the Lille metropolitan area on the Belgian border. The textile industry helped boost the city’s thriving in the 19^th century.

After this industry dwindled, the city faced challenges of urban decay with severe economic and social implications by the middle of the 1970s. The city had to find a new identity for itself by the end of the 20^th century.

And the city of Roubaix had done just that! If you know where to look, you will find fascinating sites and one of the biggest shopping venues you could see: Roubaix’s huge outlet mall!

The weather in Roubaix is relatively mild. Since it’s located on the northeast slope of the Lille metropolitan area, during the summer, the sun will greet you to give you enough warmth with no risk of sunburn. During the winter season, snowfall for a while during the holiday season is a guarantee.

So, what can this relatively new cultural city offer you? We’ll discover how to get there, since it’s not that far from other cities in the Lille area or from the French capital Paris.

How to get to Roubaix?

1. By train:

The fastest way to Roubaix is by boarding the train from Lille, with tickets ranging from 2.59 Euros to 13 Euros. You will travel the 10 Kilometers in an average of 9 to 10 minutes.

SNCF operates the train that leaves Lille Flanders and arrives in Roubaix. There are approximately 100 train trips each week between the two centers, though it’s better to check in advance if you’re planning on being there during weekends or the holiday season.

2. By subway:

For a ticket less than 2 Euros, you can ride the subway, which will take you through the 12.6 Kilometers from Lille to Roubaix in less than 25 minutes. A company such as IIevia offers a subway ride every 10 minutes.

3. By tram:

If you prefer using the tram, it will get you to Roubaix in less than half an hour for a ticket less than 2 Euros for the entire 10.2 Kilometers. Every 20 minutes, a new tram trip departs, and it is also operated by IIevia.

4. By taxi:

If you prefer a slightly more private commute, you can take the 13.6-kilometer trip by taxi from Lille to Roubaix for less than 40 Euros. You can use several taxi services, such as Taxis Lille Europe or Taxi Lille Metropole.

5. By car:

If you’d like to rent a car and go on a road trip from Lille to Roubaix, the cost can be expensive without adding the cost of fuel. A car would cost a bit more than 60 Euros, and with the fuel cost, it might be 70 Euros. Remember, it’s always best to check the means of transportation you’d prefer and book in advance to get the best prices.

What Roubaix has to offer you?

This city is blessed with remarkable buildings, old brick factories, and warehouses. It was once renowned as a worldwide textile capital in the early years of the 20^th century.

The city has one of the architectural works in the French history and culture of the 19th-century Industrial Revolution. Roubaix was announced Town of Art and History on 13 December 2000. Since then, the city of Roubaix has been promoting its new status through its social and industrial history.

1. Église Saint-Martin (Church of Saint Martin):

Traces were found of an older Romanesque church at the same site. The façade tower and a few columns of the nave remained of the first church recorded at this place and were used in reconstruction by Charles Leroy between 1848 and 1859. The current church is built in a Gothic style.

The church underwent several renovations. The first took place from 1968 to 1978 and included the removal of the interior neo-Gothic décor. A second renovation project, this time covering the exterior, was undertaken in 2002. The stucco decorations were then removed, leaving the stone bare.

The church still holds Sunday mass to this day, with occasional musical concerts now and then. It was listed as a historical monument in 2009.

2. La Piscine Museum:

This 1930s converted Art Deco swimming pool was transformed into a spectacular museum. The main exhibition room consists of the pool chambers, galleries, tiled walls, and beautiful stained windows. The adjacent textile factory offers more exhibition space.

Opened in 2000, the museum sheds light on the city’s textile industry with an archive containing thousands of samples dating back to 1835. For a day’s pass of 5 Euros, you will marvel at fabrics from Ancient Egypt, a revolving fashion collection, fine ceramics, and paintings by artists such as Tsugouharu Foujita.

3. La Manufacture:

As if stepping out of a time machine, this old factory, now a museum, will show you the different machinery used in the textile industry, from hand-operated looms from the Medieval Times to 21st-century computerized machines.

The former Craye factory still houses all the equipment when work was shut down. Demonstrations are put up using the machinery accompanied by an audio archive recounting the old times, from weavers, foremen and spinners.

4. Usine Motte-Bossut:

This old factory looks like a castle and it’s one of the most prestigious-looking factories in the city, it has an entrance that looks like a gatehouse and a chimney stack shaped like a turret.

The building of this factory goes back to the 1840s when the majority of the factory was built. Extensions were added in the following years until the 1920s, when the entire building was finally complete.

The factory ceased to operate in the 1980s, and renovations began afterwards to transform it into the National Archives of the World of Work, which is under the supervision of the French Ministry of Culture. The factory is hard to miss, as it was built right beside Roubaix Canal, in the center of the city, on Rue du Général-Leclerc.

5. Villa Cavroix:

Initially built for the textile industrialist Paul Cavrois, it was designed by the illustrious Robert Mallet-Stevens. This cutting-edge villa was built in 1932 yet was only recently restored after being left to the claws of negligence for so long.

Despite so, everything in the villa is as it was back in the 1930s. Some rooms were left empty of furniture to give you the opportunity to appreciate the fine work of Mallet-Stevens and the fantastic works of wood and marble used for panelling and the floors.

6. Hôtel de Ville (City Hall):

Victor Laloux designed Roubaix’s City Hall in 1903. Together with the sculptor Alphonse-Amédée Cordonnier, they created a beautiful manifesto of the city’s textile industry at the top of the façade of the city hall.

There are figures representing all the activities that constituted the livelihood of the people of Roubaix: cotton harvesting, cotton washing, spinning, weaving, dyeing, and conditioning. This prestigious building is a beautiful document of when this city peaked.

7. Parc Barbieux:

Roubaix’s central park was begun in 1840, but it was abandoned halfway through before the banks and mounds were turned into a beautiful English-style garden at the beginning of the 20^th century.

The park has an interesting back story. It’s said that the water channel that meanders through the centre of the park is the remnant of a failed attempt to link the centre of Roubaix with the Marque River.

The park offers various activities that you’d certainly enjoy if you have kids and you happen to visit during summer. There are mini golf courses, pedalos, rowing boats, and a pétanque court. Kiosks are dotted around the park to serve light food and beverages.

8. McArthurGlen Roubaix:

A couple of minutes on foot south of the center of the city is this designer outlet. Opened a few years ago, it attracts shoppers from Lille and Belgium across the border. It offers you 75 stores for a catalogue of premium and designer brands. Guess, Lacoste, Calvin Klein, you name it, and you’ll find it there.

This pillar of the city’s redevelopment program offers other valuable services on the premises. Cafés and restaurants are dotted everywhere to give you an opportunity to rest your tired feet.

There’s a free WIFI connection, a kids’ area for the children to play and enjoy their time as well and a helpful staff that is trained in multiple languages and can help you get around.

9. Cimetiere de Roubaix:

If you’re up for a bit of spooky history, you can visit the Roubaix Cemetery, where the founding families of the textile industry found their final resting place. The place unlikely demonstrates the decline of the textile industry in the city. It’s shameful that it isn’t always well maintained.

10. La Condition Publique:

This former fabric factory is now a temporary exhibition space. It offers online ticket reservations for upcoming events and guided tours. The exhibition also has a café and a restaurant that serves slow food, which tastes wonderful.

11. Parc du Palais de Justice:

When the Law Courts’ yard is open, you can enter for free and enjoy the Renaissance-inspired architecture. The long and austere façade fronting the street contrasts with the richly decorated internal courtyard.

The lavish decoration of the main building is highlighted by the different colours of materials used in the buildings: bricks and stones. Upon entering you will be greeted by two horse heads which indicate the location of the former stables on either side of the building.

Even though the industrialist Pierre Catteau commissioned the construction of this lavish building, he didn’t live long enough to enjoy the beauty of the place. A monogram at the top of the central projection features his initials, PC.

Adjacent to the law courts there’s a park where you can have a picnic with the family. Kids will love the place as they can play and wander around freely. Some even recited the existence of chickens running around.

Whether the chickens lived there or not is not clear. It’s worth a shot to find out, though, right?

12. Verlaine Message Museum:

Ten minutes away from Roubaix, in Tourcoing, is a massive Nazi bunker at the former headquarters of the 15th German Army. Radio Londres was the French Resistance station broadcasting from London during the war.

On the night before the Normandy Invasions, on 5 June 1944 the Radio Londres sent out coded messages in the form of lines of poetry by the likes of Paul Verlaine to warn the Resistance to mobilize. This is the German bunker that first intercepted those messages.

There’s a lot of communication equipment from that era that you can gaze upon and read about. There are generators, signal detectors and all kinds of military equipment as well.

13. LaM (Lille Métropole Museum of Modern, Contemporary and Outsider Art):

This modern art museum is in Villeneuve-d’Ascq, around 15 minutes from Roubaix on your way to Lille. The total number of artworks in the museum is over 4,500 pieces, making the LaM the only museum in Europe to present the main components of the 20th and 21st centuries: modern, contemporary, and outsider art.

First opened in 1983, the museum underwent a major renovation when it was closed in 2006 for reconstruction works, and finally reopened in 2010.

It’s worth mentioning that the collection of outsider art was donated to the museum in 1999. The museum’s collection offers an overview of modern and contemporary art, including drawings, paintings, sculptures, photography, prints, illustrated books, artist’s books, and electronic media.

14. Brasserie Cambier:

On your way to Lille from Roubaix, you can stop at the town of Croix. Cambier is a craft brewery that gives tours every Saturday afternoon. It’s a throwback to when breweries were the mainstay of cities in the Nord region in the 19^th and 20^th centuries.

The tour takes you around the brewhouse and includes a step-by-step explanation of how Cambier makes its signature “Mongy” craft beer. The tour ends with a tasting session, after which you can buy a bottle or two and even one of the stylish glasses with the brewery’s name on it to take home.

15. Old Lille:

You can’t visit Roubaix without visiting the center of Old Lille. The city’s landmarks have a Flemish influence, including the use of red and brown brick. With the bricks and the presence of row houses and terraced houses, Lille will give you a Belgian English vibe, almost as if you’ve travelled to a different country than France.

For a day’s visit in Lille-Roubaix, you can check:

• Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille (Lille’s Palace of Fine Arts):

Which is a municipal museum dedicated to fine arts, modern art and antiquities. You wouldn’t want to miss the visit as it is one of the largest art museums in France.

• Lille Cathedral (Basilica of Notre Dame de la Treille):

This national monument is an example of Gothic Revival architecture that was begun in 1854 and only finished in 1999.

• Jardin botanique de la Faculté de Pharmacie (The Botanic Garden of the Faculty of Pharma):

This free-entry botanical garden is open all week except for university holidays. The garden includes more than 1,000 taxa.

• Renaissance Lbirairie Furet du Nord (Literally Northern Ferret):

This once-fur store is now a bookstore. Located on the Grand Place, it is still the largest bookstore in Europe today. The store offers products such as books, stationery, music, and multimedia.

When you check these architectural sites off your bucket list, you’ll surely return to Roubaix exhausted but satisfied at the end of the day.

16. Parc Zoologique:

For guaranteed fun for you and if you have kids with you, visit the Lille Zoological Park in the Vauban Esquermes at the foot of the Lille Citadel. The low entry fee has helped this zoo become one of the most visited zoos in Europe.

Festivities in Roubaix

Your trip to Roubaix is not complete until you’ve caught one of the various festivals and events that take place there. If festivals and art exhibits are not your kind of jam, well, perhaps watching a challenging race at the tracks of the Stab will be the perfect change for you.

1. Paris – Roubaix Race (Mid-April):

This one-day event is one of the most challenging cycling races in France. Mainly because of the wild race track, rough country tracks, and cobblestones. The race is very challenging. It is named “Hell on the North”. Even special gear has been designed specifically for the course.

Winning the Paris–Roubaix race is a huge achievement for professional riders. Whether you are watching the race among the gruelling route or at the finish line, if you’re a cycling fanatic, you wouldn’t want to miss this event.

2. Stab Velodrome:

In the heart of the Sports Park in Roubaix, the Stab allows you to dare the track, and perhaps you will set a new cycling record. Group cycling challenges are also offered, where teams of three cyclists will compete for a six-hour endurance race.

3. Friendship Festival and Citizenship (May):

This festival allows you to meet people from different countries, backgrounds, and lifestyles. It’s also an opportunity to discover more events that support this theme.

4. Festival Belles Mechanical (June):

This festival is for all antique car lovers, so if you’re one of them, you should attend.

5. Festival Roubaix Accordion (October):

The event features music concerts by many artists from the area. It’s a good way to familiarize yourself with the city’s atmosphere and the region in total. The festival consists of various musical events that take place at different sites of the city.

6. Free Exhibitions (December):

All through December, free art exhibitions are held around the city. Exhibitions that offer works of art for sale by international and world-renowned artists.

7. Weekly Markets:

More than eleven weekly markets take place all year round. The venues vary depending on the day of the week. The usual market days are Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. A Christmas market is stable in each December in the city.

Roubaix Cuisine

Many restaurants in Roubaix will charm you into returning for another visit.

1. Le Plessy:

The food is excellent and well-presented, the service team is great and everything is done with passion and professionalism. It is a lovely atmosphere across from the train-station.

2. Le Rivoli:

Right across from the City Hall, this is a very classic French-styled bistro. The owner of the bistro, who also happens to be the chef, walks the floors to check on guests and how they liked their food.

3. Le Don Camillo:

A bustling restaurant near Saint Martin, it offers a variety of dishes, including Italian cuisine, pizza, and vegetarian options. For the best experience, you’d want to book your table in advance, as it can get very busy. This restaurant is a great choice if you’re looking for a tasty meal on a budget.

4. Fer a Cheval:

Another good choice if you’re looking for a delicious meal at a reasonable price is the restaurant. It opens at 7 p.m. and mainly serves French food, as well as salads, fish, and even burgers.

5. Loft 122:

The exposed industrial aesthetics of this place give it a New York vibe. It is located in an old textile factory in the heart of Roubaix. The charm and authenticity of the place have been preserved, making it an ideal setting to enjoy cuisine and fast service in a trendy and warm atmosphere.

6. Baraka:

If you’re headed to La Piscine for the day, you’ll come across Baraka on your way. The food is excellent and very affordable.

Imagine strolling along the renovated landmarks all day, relaxing at the park, and eating delicious food without damaging your finances. How about you imagine Roubaix?

Bienvenue à Roubaix!