Lille's culture runs past its Flemish gables: a 1932 municipal pool turned art museum in Roubaix, Guimard's only northern Art Nouveau shopfront, the biggest art brut collection in France, and spinning mills reborn as exhibition halls for Lille 2004.
An Art Deco municipal swimming pool from 1932 converted into Roubaix's art museum: sculpture lines the tiled poolside basin, with Ingres and Weerts canvases and 40,000 textile samples upstairs. Closed Monday.
Robert Mallet-Stevens' 1932 modernist manor for a textile magnate: 2,800 m² of yellow Swedish brick, restored down to the marble bathrooms, parquet inlays and original built-in furniture. Open Tuesday to Sunday 10:00–18:00.
Hector Guimard's only building in northern France, a 1900 Art Nouveau shopfront in enamelled green lava stone and twisting woodwork built for a ceramics dealer. Privately owned, so the facade is the whole visit.
A former Leclercq textile mill turned cultural centre for Lille 2004, Capital of Culture: Dutch architect Lars Spuybroek wrapped it in a perforated steel skin. Exhibitions, a hammam and artist residencies fill the old spinning halls.
Countess Jeanne of Flanders founded this hospital in 1237; the 15th-century sick ward keeps its barrel-vaulted oak ceiling, and the Flemish kitchen is lined floor to ceiling in blue-and-white Lille faience tiles. Closed Tuesday.
Louis-Marie Cordonnier's neo-classical opera house opened in 1923 after occupation delayed it a decade. The Apollo pediment and grand marble staircase are visible on free open days and the lunchtime Casse-Croûte concerts.
Lille's 1950s postal sorting warehouse, three raw concrete floors now given over to large-format contemporary art shows programmed by lille3000. Open Wednesday to Sunday 12:00–19:00, during exhibition seasons only.
A 1903 Belle Époque playhouse on place Sébastopol with 1,300 red velvet seats under an Italian-style horseshoe. Programming leans to touring drama, chanson and stand-up rather than the subsidised repertory across town.
The only European museum showing modern, contemporary and art brut side by side: Picasso, Braque and Modigliani in Roland Simounet's 1983 brick wings, plus 5,000 outsider works in Manuelle Gautrand's 2010 extension.
Around place de la Nouvelle Aventure the covered halls trade daily while the outdoor market takes over Sunday mornings: Maghrebi spice stalls, Flemish cheese, potjevleesch and rotisserie chicken eaten standing up.
A goods station abandoned in 2003 and reopened for Lille 2004 as a free exhibition venue: two brick halls host lille3000 shows, a cinema and a bar-restaurant. Open Wednesday to Sunday, shut between seasons.
An artist-run collective in a former malthouse in the Moulins quarter: around 30 studios upstairs, a 200-capacity concert cellar below booking noise, experimental and post-punk acts several nights a week.