Welcome to Lille

"Bienvenue à Lille"
French C1 writing exercise

The northern city has a lot to offer to visitors.

Pay attention to the hints!

Some vocabulary you may want to look up before or during this exercise: "a day trip", "Flanders/Flemish", "a border city", "Burgundian", "to retain (quality)", "intrinsically", "to permeate [something]", "the locals", "cobbled streets", "picturesque", "to push open the door of", "a tongue-twisting name", "nightlife", "to boast about", "a university centre", "trendy", "Let the party begin!".

I’ll give you some sentences to translate into French

  • I’ll show you where you make mistakes
  • I’ll keep track of what you need to practise
  • Change my choices if you want
Start the exercise
How the test works

Here's a preview of the text for the writing challenge, when you're ready click the start button above:

Lille is less than two hours away by train from London, and only an hour from Paris, which makes it an excellent destination for a day trip. And, although it may be French, the city is also the old capital of Flanders. Indeed, through its turbulent history as a border city, Lille was in turn Flemish, Burgundian, Spanish, Dutch, German, French and German, before becoming French again. Yet, Lille has retained an intrinsically Flemish flavour which permeates its cuisine, its architecture, down to the locals' typical Ch'ti accent. After walking the cobbled streets of Old Lille, and observing its picturesque architecture, push open the door of one of Lille's iconic estaminets, and take a look at the menu on which any dish with a tongue-twisting name will be of Flemish origin. And finally, be sure to make the most of Lille's nightlife! Indeed, Lille's region can boast about being the third university centre in Europe, which explains its impressive array of trendy bars, nightclubs, cabarets and other entertainment venues. Let the party begin!

Clever stuff happening!