Roubaix, France Hotels, Vacations, Tourism

Just 15km northeast of Lille, right up against the Belgian border, ROUBAIX is another great Flemish city whose erstwhile wealth was founded on the wool industry. Nowadays it's best known in France as the destination of the gruelling 250-km Paris-Roubaix cycle race, held in mid-April every year, but in the nineteenth century the Industrial Revolution turned Roubaix into one of France's most prosperous cities. The population multiplied fifteen-fold between 1800 and World War I, and the city's prosperity was reflected in great textiles mills, Art Nouveau houses, parks, hospitals, a … more »