Just imagine. You're ticking along, minding your own business as a city in northern France for 900 odd years. Then somebody goes and builds probably the world's most famous rail link right on your doorstep.

1994, to be precise, was the year that the London to Brussels Eurostar link opened with a stop in Lille, cunningly named Lille Europe. And all of a sudden it was one of the three places Brits could get to abroad without having to even change train.

The great thing is though, that this isn't some town that now tries to pretend it's something that it isn't, putting itself up as a tourist destination simply because it's in the right place at the right time.

Lille is genuinely an attractive, beautiful city to visit and not only the closest to England, but of the immediate trio (Paris, Brussels, Lille) the the most relaxed and charming and with a stunning centre to rival any in northern Europe.

And visitors have voted with their feet. Lille welcomes 400,000 tourists every year and a quarter of them are Brits.

However, despite the large numbers Lille is a large town, the biggest in the region with 220,000 residents (more than a million if you take in the sprawling suburbs), and unmistakeably French so there's no fear of being overrun with your friends from home.

It's also a big draw for students so there's always a bustle about the place and the buzz continues well into the night.

The middle is pretty compact and the chances are it'll only be a brief walk from where you're staying.

All roads , well most of them anyway, lead to Lille's jewel in the crown, the Grand Place. Don't fear if you're struggling to find it on the map, it's located under its more official name of Place du General de Gaulle. The erstwhile French hero who was born in Lille in 1890 – there's a museum in his name a mile out of the middle.

Bag a table, it's a grand place: The Grand Place in Lille.

As the name suggests, it's a big square surrounded on all four sides by stunningly ornate buildings. It's the place where the good people of Lille, and of course tourists, gather, to sup coffee and beer on the many cafe terraces and watch everybody else go by.

The Beauty of Lille is that the city doesn't begin and end there. Head off the Grand Place and you'll discover more architectural gems in every direction. Just behind the Grand Place is the Chamber of Commerce building complete with belfry, and if you go left past that building you are into one of the oldest sectors of town around Cathedrale Notre -Dame, dotted with cafes, restaurants, and speciality shops.

Head in the opposite direction from the Grand Place and you reach the smaller, but still charming, Place Rihour, where there's often a market of sorts at the weekend. On here you'll find the Tourist Information Centre, housed in the one piece of the gothic Palais Rihour that remains.

Glorious: Lille's old centre.

From here you can hop on the hourly minibus tours of the city. The tour takes 50 minutes and gives you an overview of the city.  It has commentary in all languages and costs 10 euro.

Alternatively you can do what I did, pick up a 2 euro guide book t the tourist information centre, which has five walking tours. I covered a couple, and they give you a good insight into the hidden treasures of Lille. And, of course, you can take a break at a cafe when you wish.

For a birds' eye view of Lille head south from the Grand Place along Rue De Paris. This 15 minute walk takes you to the Hotel de Ville, and it's towering art deco belfry (beffroi).

You can head to the top. There's 100 steps to navigate first, then you scuttle up the final few hundred metres in a lift. Views from the top are pretty impressive on a good day, and you can see as far as Belgium should that take your fancy. You are given a pair of binoculars and an audio guide, and then make your way back down the stairs.

Entry is 6 euros, it opens daily at 10am but note it does shut between 1pm and 2pm, and there's not much to do in the vicinity if you turn up at ten past one, as I can assure you from personal experience.

With 280 classified monuments and sites, plus six museums including the leading Palais des Beaux -Arts, there's certainly enough to see in Lille for a day, or a weekend. And even if you've tired of the sightseeing, the wealth of restaurants and bars in the centre will give you plenty of opportunities to while away your time.