Every design for Marcq-En-Barœul

Marcq-en-Barœul presses right up against Lille on its north-eastern side, with the canalised Marque running through it, a river whose name, like the town's, once meant both marsh and border. The Barœul itself was an old region shared with Mons-en-Barœul and part of Villeneuve-d'Ascq, covered by a forest that disappeared in the Middle Ages.

Its position on the Grand Boulevard, where the branches of the great avenue linking Lille with Roubaix and Tourcoing meet, has shaped its story. A village of market gardeners and horticulturists turned to textiles and trade in the nineteenth century; the Hôtel de Ville was completed in 1937, and business parks followed from the 1980s. Today Marcq is known as the most affluent of Lille's suburbs, part of its 'Triangle d'or', with the Hippodrome des Flandres racecourse, two golf courses and the head offices of Ladurée and Paul. Next door in Bondues, the Fort de Bondues and the Musée de la résistance de Bondues keep the memory of the war years.

Coming home to Marcq means turning off the Grand Boulevard into streets you know by heart, and feeling the town settle around you again.