Lille; Sunday, 30 April, 2017

I’d done quite a lot of walking the previous day, and slept very well and quite late. Thankfully food was still being served when I managed to get down so I had a late breakfast before heading out of the hotel.

I’d timed my lie-in well as the first place I wanted to visit was the Cathedral, and that had had a service on until midday so it wouldn’t have been able to visit if I’d been much earlier. Clearly it had been a major service as the air was thick with the smell, and smoke, from the incense they had been burning and after spending about 20 minutes looking round the Cathedral I had a really dry throat – thankfully that was quickly relieved at the very nice bar that had it’s tables out on the square in front of the cathedral.

I had a bit of a wander around the area near the cathedral before heading back over to the Place de la République to visit the Palais des Beaux Arts. According to the tourist information centre this is the second largest gallery in France after the Louvre, though as it was undergoing renovation some parts of it were closed off.

I spent a very long time looking round the galleries and in the end they were actually starting to close the building up when I finally left. I went for a little bit of a wander through the streets around the gallery and pretty quickly found myself back at the Grand Place, and as it was mid-evening decided to hunt out somewhere for dinner.

After a very nice seafood dinner I went for a bit more of a walk, partly to wear off some of the food, and also to be able to take some photos with the buildings floodlit at night.

With at least a little bit of the excess food walked off I headed back to the hotel.