On the first part of our holiday in France we were joined by my Mum and her friend Chris and involved travelling on Eurostar to Lille. Lille was a convenient overnight stop rather than trying to make the journey all the way to Brittany in one day and as a city makes for a great place to visit and is far less busy than Paris which was our other option. Our hotel, the Balladines, situated opposite Lille Flandres railway station was a ten minute walk from Lille Europe railway station where the Eurostar services run to. The hotel at €60 a night was clean and simple but given France was in the middle of a heatwave a small investment in air-conditioning would really have been a bonus - it was chuffing hot to say the least . . . . a comfortable night of sleep was certainly going to be a challenge! After a walk around Lille, including the old town area it was time for a drink and settling for a place on the main square a couple of cold bieres were soon in front of us in rather large glasses that would have made for great goldfish bowls! Our evening meal was had at Il Restorante, an Italian, located about five minutes walk from our hotel. The food was very nice as was the service. After the meal we headed back to the hotel and the room seemed warmer than earlier in the day - heat certainly rises to at least the fifth floor anyway. After very little sleep it was nice to escape the hotel room the following morning to sit outside in the cool air - quite why none of that made it into our room is a bit of a mystery! Our TGV from Lille was booked to depart at 0813 for the one hour journey to Paris Nord it was then a Metro trip across the capital to Montparnasse station for a connection to Rennes. The next stop is Brittany!