Aire-sur-la-Lys is the kind of small French town that rewards a slow walk with no plan. Its belfry rises from the eighteenth-century town hall on the Grand Place, an elegant classical building topped by a tall tower with a lantern and a carillon, and it is part of the UNESCO listing of belfries of Belgium and France. Across the square stands the Bailliage, a richly decorated Renaissance building from around 1600, with arches, carved figures and a little loggia, which once housed the guard and the town's officials. A few streets away, the great collegiate church of Saint-Pierre, built in a flamboyant Gothic style, rises above the rooftops.
The town sits on the River Lys, which flows from here through Flanders into Belgium, and is laced with canals and small waterways. For centuries it was a fortified frontier town, changing hands between France, Burgundy and Spain, and its streets are lined with old brick and stone houses, some with Spanish-style gables. The atmosphere is quiet and provincial, with a weekly market that brings the square to life.
The riding around Aire is gentle. To the north lies the marshland of the Audomarois near Saint-Omer, a maze of canals and vegetable gardens, and to the south and west the land rises into the Artois hills, with rolling farmland, small valleys and quieter, curvier roads through villages like Fruges. Isbergues, next door, is an industrial town known for its steelworks. Traffic is moderate, and the weather often grey and windy, with rain never far away.
Aire-sur-la-Lys is a town of around ten thousand people, with fuel, shops, cafés and restaurants, and Isbergues nearby offers more choice. Local food includes the hearty dishes of French Flanders: potjevleesch, carbonnade, chicory gratin and cheeses from the region. A glass of local beer in a café on the Grand Place, with the belfry overhead, is a fine way to pass an hour.
Visit in spring or summer, when the market fills the square and the canals reflect the sky. In autumn and winter the light is soft and low, and the town has a sleepy, melancholic charm. Either way, Aire is a good place to slow down, eat well and admire the work of builders who wanted their town to look as proud as any in Flanders.