City of Lille, the short story :

It is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region.

Populated by 228,000 inhabitants INSEE source. Lille was the most besieged French city. She was first Dutch and Spanish and then besieged by the Austrians, before being French. Its central point of life is the Grande Place, which was a former North/South crossroads for weavers (cf. its old stock exchange). It was an industrial city of textiles in the 20th century. Once devastated at the end of the industrial revolution.

Lille, today, is completing its economic conversion and remains an important point of attraction for companies.