English-speaking taxi in Lille

A licensed taxi, not a private-hire car

There is a distinction here that does not exist in the same form in Britain, and it is worth understanding before you book anything in this city. We hold an autorisation de stationnement — the municipal licence that makes a vehicle a taxi in France. It is issued to a named holder for a named commune, it is regulated, and it is what the badge on the car refers to.

Most of the English-language websites offering airport and station transfers around Lille are VTC operators — the French equivalent of private hire. That is a legitimate business and a different one. A VTC must be booked in advance, cannot be hailed, and works to a price it sets itself. A taxi is a regulated profession with a licence that can be inspected.

We mention it because you cannot tell from a website, and because two of the sites currently offering these journeys in English are VTCs that publish neither their prices nor their registration.

What we charge, and why it is a fixed price

Inside France a taxi runs on a meter, at rates set each year by prefectoral order for the Nord département — not by the operator and not by the city. Our French-language tarifs page publishes those figures in full.

A journey that crosses into Belgium, or runs the length of the country to Marne-la-Vallée, does not work that way. It is agreed as a fixed price before departure, so that you know the number before you get in and it does not move afterwards. That is the normal arrangement for this kind of work, and it is the one we use.

Each route page below carries an indicative price so you are not guessing. It is a guide, not a quotation: every journey is then quoted individually, free and without obligation. Tell us the date, the time and how many of you there are, and the firm figure comes back in writing and does not move afterwards.

The journeys people ask us for

Four come up again and again, and each has its own page. Lille to Ypres for the Salient and the Last Post. Lille to Brussels for meetings in the European quarter and for Brussels Airport. Lille to Bruges and Ghent, often both in one day. And Lille to Disneyland Paris, which is a long transfer that families would rather not do with luggage and a change in Paris.

They have one thing in common: the train makes them awkward. Either the connection is poor, or it lands you somewhere that is still not where you are going.

Booking before you leave home

WhatsApp is the easiest way, and it is the one most British visitors use. It costs you nothing from abroad, it gives you the answer in writing, and it means you are not trying to dial a French mobile from a UK contract. Email works just as well if you prefer.

Tell us your Eurostar or your flight number when you book. We watch it. If your train is late, we are still there — that is the whole point of booking a car rather than joining a queue.