Our aim is to introduce the three towns' industrial heritage by viewing a broad range of sites, including:-  Old Lille and the 19^th century textile mills in the Moulins area, the great Motte Bossut textile works in Roubaix, the remarkable buildings in Tourcoing, which specialised in wool production, the SNCF railway works in Hellemes, and transport links, including the driverless Metro, and railway stations old and new.

Lille, an attractive centre with interesting streets and squares, many made into pedestrian precincts, fine old buildings, shops, and restaurants, has always been a border town and a transport interchange. We shall see some of the transport side of Lille's heritage on arrival at the ultra-modern Lille-Europe station and by staying close to the Lille-Flandres station, once used as the Gare du Nord in Paris and later removed to Lille and rebuilt.

Lille’s importance as a textile town will be seen on our Friday walk around Vieux Lille, which will include the old Bourse as well as some of the later public buildings reflecting the city’s wealth and status. Of especial interest is the Coilliot house, designed for a local ceramic manufacturer by Hector Guimard, the architect of the Paris Métro. This is why the façade of the building is in pale green faience. We will also trace the remains of the canal from the River Deule to the centre of the city. Now filled in, we can nevertheless see the many warehouses and other buildings, which lined the quays.

Lille is close to the two other textile towns, Roubaix and Tourcoing and linked to them by a Metro and tramway system. Our travel around the area will include journeys on both. The Metro, extended in late 1999 to serve Roubaix and Tourcoing, was the world's first rapid driverless system, when opened in 1983.

Roubaix, which we will visit on Saturday, was known as the French ‘Manchester’ because of the great number of textile mills. It was home to one of the greatest mills in the area - now converted to an Archives Centre – the Motte-Bossut mill, which we shall see on our walk around the town centre. We will see a range of other textile mills and examples of workers' housing, notably inner court housing, once typical of the area. We also hope to see the newly opened town museum, now housed in a converted fabulous art deco swimming pool.

Tourcoing, the third of the towns in the Metropole Lille area, specialised in wool production and our walk here on Saturday will reflect that. We will be able to see

remarkable buildings, including an art deco housing complex and the station building. Close by are the showrooms where the textile firms could display their wares. We will also see a recently restored hydraulic bridge on the Canal de Tourcoing.

Sunday morning will take us to inner suburbs of Lille to see how some of the 19^th century textile mills have been adapted for re-use, in the area of Moulins, literally meaning "mills". Lille was also noted for heavy industry and we shall take a look at the SNCF railway works in Hellemes.

This is not a complete list of everything we will see but highlights a few of the more remarkable sites.