On the first weekend of September, Lille takes in close to two million visitors for the largest flea market in Europe. Around a hundred kilometres of stalls fill the streets from Saturday morning to Sunday evening, without pausing overnight.
A city handed to pedestrians for two days
The whole centre of Lille, from Vieux-Lille to Wazemmes, goes pedestrian. Parking is suspended over a very wide perimeter, and the approach roads are filtered.
In practice you do not park in Lille that weekend. The question is not finding a space, but knowing where to be dropped off and picked up.
Saturday morning and Sunday evening
Arrivals peak late on Saturday morning, and departures late on Sunday afternoon, when everyone leaves at once carrying what they bought.
A chauffeur waiting at an agreed point on the edge of the perimeter, at the time you set, saves the queue at the station and the walk with the boxes.
What we organise that weekend
We run day returns between Paris and Lille, drop-offs and pick-ups at the edge of the braderie, and transfers from Lille-Flandres and Lille-Europe stations.
The van takes the purchases without argument — this is the weekend people come home with furniture — and the chauffeur helps with loading.
Around the braderie
Roubaix and its swimming-pool museum, Tourcoing and the MUba are twenty minutes away, and many of our clients round the weekend off with dinner in Vieux-Lille.
The car stays at your disposal from one stop to the next rather than leaving, which leaves you free to break the weekend up as you like.
To organise your braderie weekend, give us the dates, the pick-up address and the number of passengers: you receive a firm price before confirming. See also our private driver in Lille page.
Photo: The original uploader was Steff at French Wikipedia. / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 3.0
