France · Hauts-de-France
Where to Stay in Roubaix, Hauts-de-France
Roubaix is a city of the far north of France near Lille, an old textile town famous for its art museum in a swimming pool and the cobbled cycling race that ends here.
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Where to stay in Roubaix
Not every neighbourhood fits every trip — here's what each one is good for.
Where you stay in Roubaix turns on the old town or Lille. The streets around the grand square keep the museum, the belfry, and the markets within a walk, and staying downtown suits anyone here for La Piscine and the town. The brick square opens wide.
Trams run to Lille. Out toward Lille and the border, the town gives way to the twin cities, the old canals, and the Flanders plain. A room toward Lille trades the mills for the big-city squares, the museums, and the cafés of the north.
The plain runs flat to Belgium. Stay downtown for the museum, or toward Lille for the city. From either base, central Roubaix is only a short ride in.
About Roubaix
Roubaix is the textile city of the French north.
What is Roubaix known for?
On the Flemish border near Lille, it grew rich in the age of steam as a great town of wool and cotton mills, and it keeps a famous art museum set in a grand old swimming pool, the velodrome where the cobbled classic of Paris-Roubaix ends each spring, the tall belfry and grand square of the mill barons, and the red-brick terraces of its working past. The flat plain runs to Belgium. The old mills line the streets.
What are the main landmarks in Roubaix?
La Piscine is the wonder of Roubaix. The old public baths, a hall of coloured tile and stained glass now filled with paintings and sculpture, draw crowds to the water's edge, the emblem of the city, in the old town. A velodrome ends the great race.
The Roubaix track takes the cobbled riders of Paris-Roubaix each spring, while the belfry, the grand square, and the textile mill museum mark the country around Roubaix.
What is the history of Roubaix?
Roubaix rose on wool. A weaving village given the right to make cloth long ago, it boomed in the age of steam into one of the great textile cities of Europe, its mills spinning wool and cotton by the mile. Workers poured in.
They came from Flanders and Belgium and from Poland and Italy to labour in the mills, and rows of red-brick houses spread across the plain for them. The barons built in brick and stone. Rich from the looms, the mill owners raised a tall belfry, a grand square, and a splendid public swimming pool of coloured tile.
The mills fell silent in time. As cheaper cloth came from abroad, the great textile trade withered, but Roubaix turned its past to new use, making the old baths into a famous art museum and drawing the world each spring for the cobbled bicycle race. The velodrome still fills each April.
Roubaix keeps its mills and its museum on the plain of the north.
Where is Roubaix?
Roubaix lies in the far north of France, on the flat Flanders plain hard by the Belgian border. The city runs together with Lille and Tourcoing in one great sprawl of brick, on level ground of canals and old mills, with the fields of Flanders beyond. The plain runs flat to Belgium.
Brick streets fill the town.
What is the climate of Roubaix?
Roubaix has a cool, damp oceanic climate. Grey wet weather crosses the plain all year, with mild cloudy summers and cold rainy winters, and rain in every season. The skies hang low and grey.
Frost comes damp in winter.
How do you get to Roubaix?
Roubaix lies in the far north of France, on the edge of Lille near Belgium. Trams and trains run to it from Lille in minutes, and the motorway passes close by. Lanes cross the old mill town.
Lille lies southwest by tram.
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Updated August 2026