We dropped Paul off at Lille station as he was heading back to London that day. We stayed at the nearby sweethôtel which we found down a back alley across from a sex shop. Not a great start. An access code was punched into a keypad outside and again at the door of the apartment. Clever but cold and slightly worrying if you did this late at night due to the seedy location. Room was modern but dark and small. However shower was strong and Internet was blistering so ok there. We walked out to the square and had a glass of wine and things improved. Lille is pretty enough but is an industrial town so has some rather ugly areas also. The notre dame cathedral is spectacularly ugly. It's gothic exterior oddly masked by a modern frontage which apparently glows in the dark. So you are not even safe then! Not far from the cathedral is the park surrounding a citadel. Pretty enough and well used by locals it was fine. I wouldn't like to be here after dark though so we hurried along and now it was just the two of us. Indulged in our sushi passion. The restaurant looked promising. We ordered sushi and tempura and a carafe of rosé. The wine was awful. Non potable. We couldn't complain as our French was so poor so we just ordered beers as well. The waitress seemed dumbfounded by this and soon after serving the food disappeared so we were all alone in the restaurant. Food was fine. Headed home to type in our code and got a fitfull nights sleep.