The Lille Thing Means A Lot

Lille knows how to give a party. On Dec. 6, the city inaugurated its year as European Cultural Capital for 2004 with a spectacular "White Ball" street bash that had more than 500,000 revelers jamming all night.

And that's just the start of an $89 million program of attractions — from a 4,000-sq-m sculpted forest suspended (upside down, at that!) above the city streets to nightly pop, rock, rap and techno concerts; 2,130 events in all — designed to bring tourists flocking to Lille. Not that it has any shortage of visitors.

In recent years, the TGV high-speed trains and the Channel Tunnel have given the city back its medieval role as the crossroads linking London, Paris and Brussels. British, Dutch and German visitors have already rediscovered the historic capital of Flanders and its beautifully renovated 17th and 18th century Vieux Lille, or Old Town.

As Cultural Capital, Lille hopes to attract travelers from farther afield, to the city and its cross-border hinterland: the 2004 program includes festivities in Dunkerque, Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer on the French coast, and in Courtrai, Mons and Tournai in Belgium. For more information go to www.lille2004.com