In Lille you can stroll through the city like - almost - anywhere else in the world: Window-shop in the shopping streets, go to the store, store, then fortify yourself in the nearest café or restaurant, and then return to the hotel or some other kind of dormitory. It works here as well as anywhere else in the world, but that's how the capital of the Hauts-de-France region remains perhaps the most underrated metropolis in France. In recent decades, the country's fourth-largest city (in terms of larger urban area) has transformed itself from an industrial center into a vibrant cultural and commercial hub.

Highlights include the charming old town with magnificent French and Flemish architecture, museums, stylish stores, excellent cuisine, nightlife enlivened by 67,000 university students, and some 1,600 designers in the surrounding area.

And there are places to linger, rest, maybe have a coffee or two. We found one of them right on the edge of the old town. It is the green lung of the city, surrounding the area of the Citadel, with shade of trees between canals, footpaths and bike paths.

The Grand Place is also called Place du Général de Gaulle. The future president of France was born here in 1890. Then as now, the square is the center of the city. Since the 17th century, there has been lively trade here, the magnificent Old Stock Exchange is the vivid proof. Directly behind it is the city's second important square: the Place du Théâtre with the Opera House as well as the Chamber of Commerce, which has complemented the Old Stock Exchange since the 20th century.