The Citadelle park and the Palais des Beaux-Arts steps

Two places give Lille the space its old centre does not. The Citadelle, built by Vauban from 1667 as a five-pointed brick and stone star where the Deûle divides, is still a working army base — so the shoot is outside the walls, and that is where it wants to be anyway: the Bois de Boulogne around it is a proper wood of plane trees, avenues, canals and a zoo, ten minutes on foot from the Grand'Place. Autumn is the season, when the avenues turn and the light comes through sideways; spring gives green tunnels and a lot of joggers.

Across town, Place de la République gives the other kind of space: the Palais des Beaux-Arts, one of the largest museums in France, presents a long nineteenth-century facade above a broad flight of steps, with room to stand well back. Steps make good pictures — they let a couple sit, climb or stand at different heights without any posing instruction — and the square is bright when the lanes of Vieux Lille are dark.

Both are free and open air. Both are also public and busy in their own way: the park has runners and prams all weekend, the square has trams, a metro entrance and a permanent flow of students.

Use them as the second half of a session. An hour that starts on the Grand'Place and ends among the plane trees covers the whole character of the city — Flemish stone, brick lanes, then trees and water — without ever needing a car.