Lille-Kortrijk

Lille (population 213 thousand¹) and Kotrijk (population 75 thousand²), along with neighboring cities in France such as Roubaix (population 95 thousand³), Tourcoing (population 92 thousand³), Loos (population 22 thousand³) and Armetières (population 25 thousand⁴), have a combined population of 1.9 million, although no city has a population of a million. Lille is on a canalized feeder of the Escault⁴ in France, while Kortrijk is on a parallel river--ultimately a tributary, in Belgium⁵. Sights in Lille include numerous churches, a citadel designed by Vauban, a 17th century exchange and the museum in the Palais des Beaux-Arts. The tallest modern building is the 20 story Tour de Lille.⁶ Sights in Kortrijk include a belfry topped by a statue of Mercury and a Béguinage, both parts of World Heritage sites. Belfries in the area honored as part of a World Heritage site besides the one mentioned in Kortrijk are those of Lille, Comines, Loos, Armentières and Menen. Tournai's chief attraction is its Notre-Dame (Our Lady) Cathedral, a World Heritage site, with its mixture of Romanesque and Gothic era constructions and sculptures. Loos is also part of a World Heritage Site honoring the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin.

External references

Notre Dame Cathedral, Tournai

Historical maps

Footnotes

1. http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_France, accessed 2/5/2015.
2. Side banner of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kortrijk, accessed 6/28/2015.
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_communes_in_France_with_over_20,000_inhabitants, accessed 2/5/2015.
4. Schelde in Dutch; Scheldt in English.
5. Belgique in French; België in the Flemmish dialect of Dutch.
6. Emporis.com, accessed 6/28/2015.