Nowhere to stop in Lille

[DonB]

Just got back from a trip to Cologne, Monschau and Aachen Christmas Markets. Very good, and we had a good time. We had a couple of days to spare so on our way back to Calais we decided to have a look at the market at Lille. We arrived to find the aire on our Tomtom at Champ de Mars is now a gypsy camp. We then tried another one on a retail park, to find that although the motorhome signs were still up, ALL the entrances had 2 metre height barriers. We then tried a site mentioned in our first edition of All the Aires, at Villeneuve D'Ascq, only to find it in the process of being dug up. By now we had been driving round Lille for hours. It was getting dark and the rush hour was building, so we phoned the Lille Tourist Office. Helpful guy told us camping is not possible in Lille and mentioned a campsite about 18 miles away! So we finished up spending the night in a restaurant car park. (Lovely meal!) The following morning we thought we would park in the Park and Ride at Champ de Mars. Drove over there to find every entrance has a 2 metre height barrier. The staff will allow coaches of all nationalities in but not motorhomes! We were told to go and park in the street outside the gypsy camp and walk back to the Park and Ride! So we parked further up past the gypsy camp close to an old sports stadium and walked into town. First stop the Tourist Office. Again very pleasant lady who told us there is nowhere in or near Lille to park a motorhome for the night. And the only place to park in the daytime is outside the aforementioned gypsy camp. She confirmed that all carparks in Lille have 2 metre height barriers. She said this has been a problem for the last 2 years and the council is trying to find a place for an aire. We were given a customer survey form to fill in, which she pleaded with us to fill in and send to the council because the tourist office is fed up with the situation as well. So we had a look round the Christmas market, which is not bad but nothing like as good as Cologne, say, and got out of town! So don't go to Lille in your motorhome.....

[Lord Raindrop]

Sounds like many towns are getting the 2 metre fever.

[MandyAndy]

Well. I could have written that story myself. :-(

That is just what we spent the night doing on Saturday, but what was more annoying was that we knew where to park as we had done it last year but just could not find the spot we had been in.

 

We also drove around for hours having dropped my daughter and her friend off who spent the night in the Ibis hotel in the centre of town.

 

We ended up 5 miles away in the grounds of the Decathlon where the Camperstop book took us, it has been all shut off as they are doing work on there but found another van on the huge car park and we plonked ourselves next to it for the night. We dropped the girls off at 7pm and came to a halt at 9pm so had just had enough.

 

We also did Aachen and Monschau and had a wonderful time there, never did bother going to Lille just picked the girls up the next day and drove back to Calais.

 

Mandy