Lille

Lille, is a city in northern France (French Flanders). It is the principal city of the Lille Métropole, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country behind those of Paris, Lyon and Marseille. Lille is situated on the Deûle River, near France's border with Belgium. It is the capital of the Nord-Pas de Calais region and the prefecture of the Nord department.
The city of Lille, which annexed Lomme on 27 February 2000, had a population of 226,014 at the 2006 census. Meanwhile, the Lille Métropole, which also includes Roubaix, Tourcoing and numerous suburban communities, had a population of 1,091,438. The eurodistrict of Lille-Kortrijk, which also includes the areas of the Belgian cities of Kortrijk, Tournai, Mouscron and Ypres, had 1,905,000 residents


The Lille Métropole has a mixed mode public transport system, which is considered one of the most modern in the whole of France. It comprises buses, trams and a driverless metro system, all of which are operated under the Transpole name. The Lille Metro is a VAL system (véhicule automatique léger = light automated vehicle) that opened on 16 May 1983, becoming the first automatic metro line in the world. The metro system has two lines, with a total length of 45 km and 60 stations. The tram system consists of two interurban tram lines, connecting central Lille to the nearby communities of Roubaix and Tourcoing, and has 45 stops. 68 urban bus routes cover the metropolis, 8 of which reach into Belgium.


Railways
Lille is an important crossroads in the European high-speed rail network. It lies on the Eurostar line to London (1:20 hour journey). The French TGV network also puts it only 1 hour from Paris, 35 mn from Brussels and other major centres in France such as Marseille, Lyon, and Toulouse further away. It has two railway stations, which stand next door to one another: Lille-Europe station (Gare de Lille-Europe), which primarily serves high-speed trains and international services (Eurostar), and Lille-Flandres station (Gare de Lille-Flandres), which primarily serves lower speed regional trains and regional Belgian railways.


Highways


Lille: motorway network.
No fewer than five autoroutes pass by Lille, the densest confluence of highways in France after Paris:
Autoroute A27 : Lille – Tournai – Brussels / Liège – Germany
Autoroute A23 : Lille – Valenciennes
Autoroute A1  : Lille – Arras – Paris / Reims – Lyon / Orléans / Le Havre
Autoroute A25 : Lille – Dunkirk – Calais – England / North Belgium
Autoroute A22 : Lille – Antwerp – Netherlands
A sixth one – the proposed A24 – will link Amiens to Lille if built, but there is opposition to its route.


Air traffic
Lille Lesquin International Airport is 15 minutes from the city centre by car (11 km). In terms of shipping, it ranks fourth, with almost 38,000 tonnes of freight which pass through each year. Its passenger trafic, around 1,2 millions a year in 2010, is modest due to the proximity to Brussels and Paris-CDG airports. The airport mostly connects other French and European cities (some with low cost companies) as well as Mediterranean destinations.


Waterways


Lille is the third largest French river port after Paris and Strasbourg. The river Deûle is connected to regional waterways with over 680 km of navigable waters. The Deûle connects to Northern Europe via the River Scarpe and the River Scheldt (towards Belgium and the Netherlands), and internationally via the Lys River (to Dunkerque and Calais).


Education


The Université Catholique de Lille was founded in 1875. Today it has law, economics, medicine, physics faculties and schools. Among the most famous is Institut catholique d'arts et métiers (ICAM) founded in 1898, ranked 20th among engineering schools, with the specificity of graduating polyvalent engineers, Ecole des Hautes études d'ingénieur (HEI) a school of engineering founded in 1885 and offering 10 fields of specialization, École des hautes études commerciales du nord (EDHEC) founded in 1906, SKEMA Business School and the IESEG currently ranked within the top 5, the top 10 and top 15 business schools in France, respectively. In 1924 ESJ – a leading journalism school – was established.
With roots back from 1562 to 1793 as University of Douai (Université de Douai), then as Université Impériale in 1808, the State Université of Lille (Université Lille Nord de France) was established in Lille in 1854 with Louis Pasteur as the first dean of its Faculty of Sciences. A school of medicine and an engineering school were also established in Lille in 1854. The Université de Lille was united as the association of existing public Faculties in 1887 and was split into three independent university campus in 1970, including:
Université de Lille I, also referred-to as Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille (USTL),
Université de Lille II with law, management, sports and medical faculties,
Université Charles-de-Gaulle Lille III with humanities and social sciences courses.
The Institut supérieur européen de gestion group (ISEG Group) established in Lille in 1988. The ESA – École Supérieure des Affaires is a Business Management school established in Lille in 1990. IEP Sciences-Po Lille political studies institute was established in Lille in 1992.
Ecole Centrale de Lille is one of the five Centrale Graduate Schools of engineering in France ; it was founded in Lille city in 1854, its graduate engineering education and research center was established as Institut Industriel du Nord (IDN) in 1872, in 1968 it moved in a modern campus in Lille suburb. École nationale supérieure de chimie de Lille was established as Institut de chimie de Lille in 1894 supporting chemistry research as followers of Kuhlmann's breakthrough works in Lille. Skema Business School established in 1892 is ranked among the top business schools in France. École nationale supérieure d'arts et métiers settled in Lille in 1900. École pour l'informatique et les nouvelles technologies settled in Lille in 2009. ESME-Sudria settled in Lille in 2012.
The European Doctoral College Lille Nord-Pas de Calais is headquartered in Lille metropole and includes 3,000 PhD Doctorate students supported by university research laboratories.