The social program includes the welcome reception on June 30, the reception in the City Hall on July 1, the excursion on July 2 and the conference dinner on July 3. Both receptions and the excursion are included in the registration fees.
The Lille city hall is topped by a belfry designated by UNESCO as World Heritage Site. It is 104 m high, and it is in fact the first reinforced concrete building over 100 meters high built in France. It is still today the highest municipal building in France. The current mayor is Martine Aubry, former Prime Minister of France.
To go there, take the metro, line 2, until the Mairie de Lille station (one stop from Gare Lille Flandres station). Then just raise your head and go towards the belfry.
Lens is the site of the new extension of the Louvre museum called "Louvre-Lens". If you're an art lover, you can not miss this opportunity to visit this former coal mining town and have a look at the sleek steel and glass museum. Measuring 3,000 m², the Galerie du Temps is the museum’s principle exhibition space. It invites the visitor to take a journey into the heart of the civilisations, from the Neolithic period up to the 19th century. 250 works from the collections of the Louvre museum are brought together here, side by side for the first time without a division between the different civilisations. In addition to this, a gallery for temporary exhibitions, with a surface area of 1,800 m², hosts two major exhibitions per year.
The conference dinner will take place in one of the most emblematic buildings of Lille. Known as la Nouvelle Bourse, it is the home of the Lille Chamber of Commerce and industry. The building is topped by one of the three belfries of the city of Lille (with the belfry of the city hall and the new belfry of the region headquarters). The dinner will be hell in the Great Hall of the Nouvelle Bourse.
To go there, if you are in Lille center, just raise your head and go towards the belfry.
Booklet of the conference