Lille in April?

We spent 3 nights in Lille last September as we wanted to visit the Canadian WWI memorial at Vimy Ridge. Lille is a reasonable sized city and in addition to our day trip to Arras to visit Vimy Ridge we also visited a number of art museums in the Lille area. We thought the food in Lille was excellent and we had some terrific meals in there. But I’m not sure whether I’d be able to entertain 2 teenage boys using Lille as a base. If they have any interest in WW1, history abounds in this area. Our visit to Vimy Ridge was the highlight of our month in France - but we are Canadians, my grandfather fought in WW1 and my mother was part of the Canadian pilgrimage to Vimy in 1936 when the memorial was dedicated by King Edward VIII which made the visit very special for us. I have no experience with teen boys - just teen age girls - and I don’t think it’s always possible to know in advance what will be a hit with them and what will be a miss. Lille doesn’t meet your criteria for cute - it’s a city without the charm of a village but there is a good sized university in Lille. I think you might want to consider something that meets your criteria of cute and then sort out what’s close by for the boys.

Here are some past discussions:
https://search.ricksteves.com/?button=&filter=Travel+Forum&query=Lille&utf8=%E2%9C%93

Isn’t the primary question whether the boys can do things by themselves? For that, you need a city, not a rural villa and a car rental. I personally think that Antwerp is much more interesting than Lille, and better for two boys who are allowed to do things on their own. But if they are only used to being chauffeured from soccer coaching to the library, they may not have the resources to keep themselves amused.

The worst-case train from Lille to Antwerp is two changes and three hours. In this case, I’m not flogging Antwerp, but only saying that, because I’ve done it! Bruges is another hour. It’s perfectly true that Lille has good rail connections, but are you really going to pay the walk-up fare for Eurostar or Thalys? There has been talk here of a bus to Bruges from near Lille, but it’s a special bit of research.

You can do Lille to Bruges cross-country by train without worrying about Eurostar or Thalys, although you will usually have to change at Kortrijk.

If you go, one of our favorite restaurant groups has a restaurant in Lillie. Big Mama from Paris. Great Italian restaurants :) We have been in Paris and just went to their new restaurant in London. Anyway... here is the link: https://www.bigmammagroup.com/en/trattorias/la-bellezza