Lille

France / Nord-Pas-de-Calais / Lille /
 city, capital city of state/province/region, municipality, draw only border
Lille (Ryssel in Flemish, Rijsel in Dutch) is the largest city of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais, prefecture North and the chief town of Nord-Pas-de-Calais.
Lille with 224 900 inhabitants, is the main city of Lille Metropole Urban Community with 1.2 million inhabitants with the towns of Roubaix, Tourcoing and Villeneuve-d'Ascq. Lille is also the center of an international metropolitan area comprising about 1.37 million inhabitants spread over Belgium. It is therefore also a major conurbation with the cities of Mouscron, Kortrijk, Tournai and Menin, totalling at least 1.9 million people [1]. His name former french (The Isle), as in Flanders (Ryssel, Rijsel in modern Flemish or Dutch modern), comes from an island on the Deûle river. Lille and its environs belong to the historic region of Flanders Romanesque former territories of the County of Flanders but not forming part of the linguistic area of Flemish: Lille has always been a city of Romance language [wikipedia].
history of Lille: fr.wikipedia.org / wiki / Histoire_de_Lille
Lille has expanded by merging with neighbouring communes, on several occasions: 1858: Esquermes Fives, Moulins-Lille and Wazemmes * 1977: Hellemmes-Lille * 2000: Lomme
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lille
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   50°37'44"N   3°3'40"E

Comments

  • The most funny thing about Lille is that its inhabitants now prefer completely nouvelle cuisine. They associate nouvelle cuisine with some kind of a new belle époque. And they associate haute cuisine with not just ancien régime, but with the moyen âge. That's why they hate and contemn haute cuisine.