Lille, France
Lille. A little old mini-city just an hour away from Paris on the fast train. Half the price of Paris, a tenth of the size, and almost all pedestrianised - perfect for a traffic-free, gourmet-filled, super-relax weekend, and you can always pop back to Paris when the yearning for nightlife gets too strong.
And if we're talking cutesy quaint, we might as well stay in a cutesy quaint hotel: the Couvent des Minimes.
It was a 17th-century convent housing a women's order called the Minimes, which literally means 'minors' or 'small people'. Since being taken over by Alliance Lille it's transformed into a quietly stylish 4-star hotel.
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