Lille PreTrip

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Ghent, Belgium	Lille, France	Munich, Germany

General

Lille

Lille (French pronunciation: [lil] ( listen); Dutch: Rijsel [ˈrɛi̯səɫ]) is the largest city in French Flanders. It is the principal city of the Lille Métropole, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in France after those of Paris, Lyon and Marseille. Lille is situated on the Deûle River, near France's border with Belgium. It is the capital of the Nord-Pas de Calais region and the prefecture of the Nord department.

The Lille area covers an area of 34.8 km2 Total population of 226,827 Density of 6,518 / km2 Time Zone : CET (GMT +1)

Education

With over 110 000 students, the metropolitan area of Lille is one France's top student cities. With roots[10] back from 1562 to 1793 as University of Douai (Université de Douai), then as Université Impériale in 1808, the State Université of Lille (Université Lille Nord de France) was established in Lille in 1854 with Louis Pasteur as the first dean of its Faculty of Sciences. A school of medicine and an engineering school were also established in Lille in 1854. The Université de Lille was united as the association of existing public Faculties in 1887 and was split into three independent university campus in 1970, including: Université de Lille I, also referred-to as Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille (USTL), Université de Lille II with law, management, sports and medical faculties, Université Charles-de-Gaulle Lille III with humanities and social sciences courses. Ecole Centrale de Lille is one of the five Centrale Graduate Schools of engineering in France; it was founded in Lille city in 1854, its graduate engineering education and research center was established as Institut industriel du Nord (IDN) in 1872, in 1968 it moved in a modern campus in Lille suburb. École nationale supérieure de chimie de Lille was established as Institut de chimie de Lille in 1894 supporting chemistry research as followers of Kuhlmann's breakthrough works in Lille. Skema Business School established in 1892 is ranked among the top business schools in France. École nationale supérieure d'arts et métiers settled in Lille in 1900. École pour l'informatique et les nouvelles technologies settled in Lille in 2009. ESME-Sudria and E-Artsup settled in Lille in 2012. The ESA – École Supérieure des Affaires is a Business Management school established in Lille in 1990. IEP Sciences-Po Lille political studies institute was established in Lille in 1992. The Institut supérieur européen de formation par l'action is also located in Lille. The Institut supérieur européen de gestion group (ISEG Group) established in Lille in 1988. The European Doctoral College Lille Nord de France is headquartered in Lille Metropolis and includes 3,000 PhD Doctorate students supported by university research laboratories. The Université Catholique de Lille was founded in 1875. Today it has law, economics, medicine, physics faculties and schools. Among the most famous is Institut catholique d'arts et métiers (ICAM) founded in 1898, ranked 20th among engineering schools, with the specificity of graduating polyvalent engineers, Ecole des Hautes études d'ingénieur (HEI) a school of engineering founded in 1885 and offering 10 fields of specialization, École des hautes études commerciales du nord (EDHEC) founded in 1906, IESEG and Skema Business School[11] currently ranked within the top 5, the top 10 and top 15 business schools in France, respectively. In 1924 ESJ – a leading journalism school – was established.

Political History

Century	Events
11th	Lille was once spelt “L’Isle” Means “The Island”. The country was a town developed around a castle.
13th - 14th	With the French victory at the Battle of Bouvines [1214] Lille came under the hands of the Lady Jeanne, countess of Flanders. Between 1304 and 1369, Lille belonged to France after the Franco-Flemish War. It belonged to Burgundy after that, up to 1477 when the last duke of Burgundy died. It fell under the rule of Spain.
12th - 13th	English wool and French grain were imported via the harbours at Lys and Scheldt. They became the pillars of what turned out to be a very thriving textile and grain business in medieval Ghent. Throughout the Middle Ages Ghent had a population of about 65,000 making it larger than London, Cologne or Antwerp. Moreover Ghent was, after Paris, the biggest and wealthiest city north of the Alps.
17th - 18th	In 1667, Louis XIV successfully laid siege to Lille and brought it back under French rule. Between 1708 and 1713, it was occupied by the Dutch, during the war of the Spanish Succession. In 1790, Lille held its first municipal elections.
Modern Era	World War 1 saw Lille occupied by Germany, and liberated by the British in October 1918 World War 2 saw Lille occupied by Germany again, and liberated by the British.

Economy

A former major mechanical, food industry and textile manufacturing centre as well as a retail and finance center, Lille forms the heart of a larger conurbation, regrouping Lille, Roubaix, Tourcoing and Villeneuve d'Ascq, which is France's 4th-largest urban conglomeration with a 1999 population of over 1.1 million. Revenues and taxes[edit] For centuries, Lille, a city of merchants, has displayed a wide range of incomes: great wealth and poverty have lived side by side, especially until the end of the 1800s. This contrast was noted by Victor Hugo in 1851 in his poem Les Châtiments: « Caves de Lille ! on meurt sous vos plafonds de pierre ! » ("Cellars of Lille: there is death below your stone roofs") </ref>

Enterprises

In 2007, Lille hosts around 21,000 industry or service sites. Enterprises as per 31 December 2007

	Number			Size category					Mean number of employees
	Greater Lille	Lille	% Lille	None	1 to 19	20 to 99	100 to 499	500+	Lille	Greater
Industries	3 774	819	22%	404	361	40	12	2	17	22
Construction	4 030	758	19%	364	360	32	2	1	7	10
Commerce	13 578	4 265	31%	2 243	1 926	83	13	0	7	11
Transports	1 649	407	25%	196	182	23	5	1	32	26
Finance	2 144	692	32%	282	340	51	17	2	21	18
Real property	5 123	1 771	35%	1 159	587	23	2	0	5	4
Business services	12 519	4 087	33%	2 656	1 249	149	27	6	15	17
Services to consummers	8 916	3 075	34%	1 636	1 347	86	6	0	7	6
Education and health	11 311	3 217	28%	2 184	765	195	58	15	43	31
Administration	4 404	1 770	40%	1 187	456	80	34	13	59	48
Total	67 468	20 861	31%	12 311	7 573	762	176	39	18	17

Culture

Religion

France is a secular country where freedom of thought and of religion is preserved, by virtue of the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. The Republic is based on the principle of laïcité, that is of freedom of religion (including of agnosticism and atheism) enforced by the Jules Ferry laws and the 1905 law on the separation of the State and the Church, enacted at the beginning of the Third Republic (1871–1940). A January 2007 poll found that 61% of the French population describe themselves as Roman Catholics, 21% as Atheists, 4% as Muslims, 3% as Protestants, 1% as Buddhists, and 1% as Jews. France guarantees freedom of religion as a constitutional right and the government generally respects this right in practice. A long history of violent conflict between groups led the state to break its ties to the Catholic Church early in the last century and adopt a strong commitment to maintaining a totally secular public sector.

Food & Alcohol

Traditional French culture places a high priority on the enjoyment of food. French cuisine was codified in the 20th century by Georges Auguste Escoffier to become the modern version of haute cuisine. Escoffier's major work, however, left out much of the regional character to be found in the provinces of France. Gastro-tourism and the Guide Michelin helped to bring people to the countryside during the 20th century and beyond, to sample this rich bourgeois and peasant cuisine of France. Basque cuisine has also been a great influence over the cuisine in the southwest of France. Ingredients and dishes vary by region (see: Regional cuisine). There are many significant regional dishes that have become both national and regional. Many dishes that were once regional, however, have proliferated in different variations across the country in the present day. Cheese (see: List of French cheeses) and wine (see: French wine) are also a major part of the cuisine, playing different roles both regionally and nationally with their many variations and Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC) (regulated appellation) laws, (lentils from Le Puy-en-Velay also have an AOC status). Another French product of special note is the Charolais cattle. A sweet crêpe. Crêpes are originally from Brittany. The French typically eat only a simple breakfast ("petit déjeuner") which consists of coffee or tea, served traditionally in a large handleless "bol" (bowl) and bread or breakfast pastries (croissants). Lunch ("déjeuner") and dinner ("dîner") are the main meals of the day. Formal four course meals consist of a starter course ("entrée"), a salad, a main course ("plat principal"), and finally a cheese or dessert course. While French cuisine is often associated with rich desserts, in most homes dessert consists of only fruit or yogurt. Food shopping in France was formerly done almost daily in small local shops and markets, but the arrival of the supermarket and the even larger "hypermarchés" (large-surface distributors) in France have disrupted this tradition. With depopulation of the countryside, many towns have been forced to close shops and markets. Rates of obesity and heart disease in France have traditionally been lower than in other north-western European countries. This is sometimes called the French paradox (see, for example, Mireille Guiliano's 2006 book French Women Don't Get Fat). French cuisine and eating habits have however come under great pressure in recent years from modern fast food, American products and the new global agricultural industry. While French youth culture has gravitated toward fast food and American eating habits (with an attendant rise in obesity), the French in general have remained committed to preserving certain elements of their food culture through such activities as including programs of taste acquisition in their public schools, by the use of the appellation d'origine contrôlée laws, and by state and European subsides to the French agricultural industry. Emblematic of these tensions is the work of José Bové, who founded in 1987, the Confédération Paysanne, an agricultural union that places its highest political values on humans and the environment, promotes organic farming and opposes genetically modified organisms; Bové's most famous protest was the dismantling of a McDonald's franchise in Millau (Aveyron), in 1999. In France, cutlery is used in the continental manner (with the fork in the left hand, prongs facing down and the knife in the right hand). French etiquette prohibits the placing of hands below the table and the placing of elbows on it. The legal drinking age is officially 18 (see: Legal drinking age). France is one of the oldest wine producing regions of Europe. France now produces the most wine by value in the world (although Italy rivals it by volume and Spain has more land under cultivation for wine grapes). Bordeaux wine, Bourgogne wine and Champagne are important agricultural products.

Fashion

Along with Milan, London and New York, Paris is center of an important number of fashion shows. Some of the world's biggest fashion houses (ex: Chanel) have their headquarters in France. The association of France with fashion (French: la mode) dates largely to the reign of Louis XIV [26] when the luxury goods industries in France came increasingly under royal control and the French royal court became, arguably, the arbiter of taste and style in Europe. France renewed its dominance of the high fashion (French: couture or haute couture) industry in the years 1860–1960 through the establishing of the great couturier houses, the fashion press (Vogue was founded in 1892; Elle was founded in 1945) and fashion shows. The first modern Parisian couturier house is generally considered the work of the Englishman Charles Frederick Worth who dominated the industry from 1858-1895.[27] In the early twentieth century, the industry expanded through such Parisian fashion houses as the house of Chanel (which first came to prominence in 1925) and Balenciaga (founded by a Spaniard in 1937). In the post war year, fashion returned to prominence through Christian Dior's famous "new look" in 1947, and through the houses of Pierre Balmain and Hubert de Givenchy (opened in 1952). In the 1960s, "high fashion" came under criticism from France's youth culture while designers like Yves Saint Laurent broke with established high fashion norms by launching prêt-à-porter ("ready to wear") lines and expanding French fashion into mass manufacturing and marketing.[28] Further innovations were carried out by Paco Rabanne and Pierre Cardin. With a greater focus on marketing and manufacturing, new trends were established in the 70s and 80s by Sonia Rykiel, Thierry Mugler, Claude Montana, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Christian Lacroix. The 1990s saw a conglomeration of many French couture houses under luxury giants and multinationals such as LVMH. Since the 1960s, France's fashion industry has come under increasing competition from London, New York, Milan and Tokyo, and the French have increasingly adopted foreign (particularly American) fashions (such as jeans, tennis shoes). Nevertheless, many foreign designers still seek to make their careers in France.

Etiquette and Protocol

Business Meeting Etiquette

• Handshakes: Brisk, and light, never beyond 2 up-down movement
• First Impression: Manner, Attire and Professionalism (MAP)
• French Gesture! Your okay IS NOT okay!!
• It is OK in France to ask a lot of questions and to interrupt somebody before they have finished
• French prefers plans that are far-reaching & detailed.
• French bosses like to be shown respect, especially if they're older than you.

Gift-Giving Etiquette

• Small business gifts may be exchanged, but usually not at the first meeting.

Dining Etiquette

• French Business Lunch is both formal and long.
• Hands: both hands on the table
• Keep small talk at the beginning of a meeting or a networking event strictly professional
• Business conversation only starts when the host initiate it when desserts are served
• Seating during meals are based on rank.
• Taste everything offered.
• Leaving food on your plate is impolite.
• Seat properly too!
• French business people do not like to be pressured into making quick decisions.
• Do not ask for a martini or scotch before dinner -- they are viewed as palate numbing.
• Dinner is more of a social occasion and a time to enjoy good food, wine and discussion. Keep work discussion to lunch.

Business Expectations

• Focused on long-term relationships
• People in France are usually straightforward, questioning and probing
• Decision making pace is slow, decisions usually not made at the first meeting
• Keep business and personal life separate

Main Sight

Lille features an array of architectural styles with various amounts of Flemish influence, including the use of brown and red brick. In addition, many residential neighborhoods, especially in Greater Lille, consist of attached 2–3 story houses aligned in a row, with narrow gardens in the back. These architectural attributes, many uncommon in France, help make Lille a transition in France to neighboring Belgium, as well as nearby Netherlands and England, where the presence of brick, as well as row houses or the Terraced house is much more prominent. Points of interest include

• Lille Cathedral (Basilique-cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-la-Treille)
• Citadel of Lille
• Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille
• Jardin botanique de la Faculté de Pharmacie
• Jardin botanique Nicolas Boulay
• Jardin des Plantes de Lille

Entrepreneurship

• Country that invented the word entrepreneur
• Lack of entrepreneurial spirit
• 9 out of 10 entrepreneurs fail
• High tax for entrepreneurs (up to 60%)
• Sixth largest economic power in the world; support for R&D
• Europe’s third-largest venture-capital and private- equity market in 2001
• 2nd Largest Market in Europe (64.7 million inhabitants)
• Organizations supporting startups at every stage

EuraTechnologies

EuraTechnologies is the economic center of excellence dedicated to Information Technology and Communication (ICT) to Lille. This park includes activities and brings together players in the world of research, higher education and economic actors in the field ICT1 (startups, SME, large French and foreign companies).

EuraTechnologies is a business park of 150,000 m2 located in Lille, who intended to bring together actors , projects and innovations in the ICT sector. It includes a set of buildings housing laboratories, higher education institutions and businesses in the ICT facilities . Spaces are available to these organizations as well as external actors , especially for events , conferences, forums and exhibitions related to new technologies and innovations ( Auditorium, conference rooms, room telepresence digital studio organization etc . ) . The place and its animation are managed by SPL EuraTechnologies , one of whose tasks is the accompaniment of project related to new technologies. EuraTechnologies therefore includes a business incubator for entrepreneurs to launch their projects mature and then move into a phase of acceleration to reach maturity . Open since 2009 , it hosts about 100 companies in 2013 , representing nearly 1,500 jobs2 .

Investment Scene

• In France, the investment scene seems to be slow but steady
• The number of investments is growing at a steady enough rate
• The biggest deterrent is the high taxes that the government is imposing
• A number of tech startups doing well in the region, thus creating a good ecosystem
• Government provides subsidies for startup
• For instance - créateur d’entreprise (unemployment benefit)
• The fact that France has a very good ecosystem, especially for tech startups can’t be denied
• A Plus Finance, Omnes Capital which have been investing millions of Euros in startups from the last few years