alisoncarson6406

Hi, I am planning a family trip and want to end up in northwestern France or Belgium to meet up with my sister and her family. I am looking for a place to stay for 2-3 days that will be fun to explore with 3 teenagers. We will be driving from Lyon (or there abouts), and will stay in an AirBnB or VRBO, and will have a car. At this point, my thinking is to find a place to stay in Lille, Reims, or Bruges, but would love your experienced suggestions. Thanks!

bilboburgler

Reims
The centre is old and even has a forum, Carnegie library and cathedral.
To the south are a series of rivers/canals with some good cycling/walking etc

Bruges, similar but smaller

Lille, some interesting museums but... nah even after a lot of recent investment

Jean

I don't know where you're coming from, so this may be too far east... but how about Verdun and some WWI sights?

Christina

I presume you meant you wanted to end up in northeastern France, didn't you? You said northwest. It's hard to say without knowing what the kids would find interesting, you might consider Amiens also or Ghent. Bruges, after all, is up on the north coast.

I really liked Nancy in France, which is on a main route from Lyon. It really depends where you are going in Belgium, though, if you want to minimize being off track.

kerouac

Lille and Reims are not near northwestern France.

k_marie

How would you describe the location of Lille, Kerouac?

VANAARLE

Lille is in north France, the area can be referred to as French Flanders region.
We need more info on this trip until then suggestion can be sort of wild guesses.

Sassafrass

Consider Ghent over Bruges.

kerouac

Any town east of the Paris meridian can be considered to be in the east,but it's true that Lille is only referred to as being in the north rather than northeast. The Grand-Est region covers northeast France.

k_marie

Thanks. If I’m reading the maps correctly, it seems the north west of France extends north to Normandy. North of that is Hauts-de-France which is considered north France.

aliced

I suppose teenagers would find more appeal in Ghent over Bruges, being a university town, but in our opinion, holds little of the charm of Bruges. None of our six teenage grandchildren would be particularly interested in any above, but history ranks very low in their fields of study.

kerouac

In any case, I vote for Lille.

andyoinsefl

of these I’ve only been to Bruges and it was in 1994, so take this for what that’s worth, but it was one of my favorite stops in Europe. We did a bike ride tour in the countryside and the town itself was gorgeous and charming. I hope it hasn’t lost that. I’m always surprised when I see people suggest not to go there.

hetismij2

Does it have to be a city? What about the Côte d'Opale and or the Somme estuary?

kerouac

Hetismij2 is absolutely right. The seal colonies of the Baie de Somme are fabulous, as is the drive along the northern coast with stops at Cap Gris Nez and Cap Blanc Nez.

kerouac

For a hotel, you could stop at Coquelles at the Eurotunnel, which has a substantial hotel zone.