THE GHENT HERMITAGE

Listed as a historical Monuments, the hospice founded by Jean de Le Cambe, known as Le Gantois, welcomed the Lille destitute from 1460 to 1995. Falling into disuse, the complex is let out to the Lille CHRU by the Lille company of hotel investment by emphyteutic lease of 60 years. Beautifully restored, the building has retained three of its four open courtyards (one of them houses the hotel's bar under a huge glass roof). The rooms are luxuriously equipped (the hotel is classified as a five-star one) and some open onto a courtyard not available to Lille visitors. L'Hermitage Gantois has a restaurant (the restaurant of L'Hermitage) and a tavern opening onto Rue de Paris which offers regional specialties in a decor of Flanders rural brasserie. Moreover, L'Hermitage Gantois provides valet parking, dry cleaning service and also has a chapel (with a simple 18th-century way of the cross and old paintings). A library with over 2,500 old books is accessible to guests who, apart from being a place where they can find peace and meditation, will discover quality pictorial exhibitions in the heart of Lille.