Lille, Flanders & the Somme
Inside the 1612-built Château de Blérancourt, 33km northeast of Compiègne, the French–American museum reopened in 2017 after a decade of archaeological…
Must-see attractions in Lille, Flanders & the Somme
Neuve-Chapelle Indian Memorial
Lille, Flanders & the Somme
The Mémorial Indien, 27km southwest of Lille, records the names of 4700 soldiers and labourers of the Indian Army who 'have no known grave'. The 15m-high…
Calais
Inaugurated in 1925, Calais' Hôtel de Ville (city hall) melds Flemish and Renaissance styles, as does its 78m-high, Unesco-listed beffroi (belfry) topped…
Côte d’Opale
The cultures of five continents meet inside the Château-Musée, housed in a 13th-century fortified castle. Egyptian antiquities (some brought here by…
Lille, Flanders & the Somme
Just outside the hamlet of La Boisselle, 4.5km northeast of Albert, this enormous crater looks like the site of a meteor impact. Some 100m across and 30m…
Amiens
Constructed between 1406 and 1410, Amiens' massive square belfry – a Unesco-listed monument – has a mid-18th-century top reaching 52m, which was rebuilt…
Lille
Within a red-brick 15th- and 17th-century poorhouse, this absorbing museum features ceramics, earthenware wall tiles, religious art, 17th- and 18th…
Dunkirk
To learn about the 1940 evacuation of Dunkirk, stop by this non-profit museum. In addition to a 15-minute film, there are scale models, and evocative…
Lille
Splashed with street art murals, this cavernous red-brick postal sorting centre was transformed into an arts centre in 2004, when Lille was the European…
Dunkirk
Set inside a 19th-century tobacco warehouse, this museum will delight fans of maritime history and, especially, model ships. During school holidays you…
Église St-Martin de St-Valery-sur-Somme
Lille, Flanders & the Somme
St-Valery-sur-Somme's Église St-Martin was built from shingle and flint, giving it a chequerboard appearance, guarded by fantastical gargoyles…
Côte d’Opale
Designed by French artist Alain Godon (b 1964), this 9.5m-high sculpture made from polystyrene on a metal frame, coated with beach sand, depicts an…
Côte d’Opale
Popular period songs play as you stroll past dozens of life-size tableaux of WWII military and civilian life at this museum. The dashing but wildly…
Côte d’Opale
WWII hardware including a massive, rail-borne German artillery piece with a range of 86km is displayed at this well-organised museum, housed in a colossal…
Dunkirk
Rising 63m high, this automated, first order port lighthouse is the highest of its kind in France (its beam can be seen from 60km away). The lighthouse…
Maison Natale de Charles de Gaulle
Lille
The upper-middle-class house in which Charles de Gaulle was born in 1890 is now a museum presenting the French general and president in the context of his…
Lille, Flanders & the Somme
The Museum of Flanders has a worthwhile, well-presented collection of Flemish art, both old and modern, including canvases in the 15th-century Flemish…
Calais
Children can splash in the shallow, clear waters of Calais' cabin-lined city beach (patrolled by lifeguards in summer), while its fine sand is ideal for…
Calais
Housed in a massive concrete bunker built as a German naval headquarters, this WWII museum displays thousands of period artefacts, including weapons,…
Lille
Ornamented with caryatids and cornucopia, this Flemish Renaissance extravaganza was completed in 1653. It consists of 24 separate houses set around a…
Amiens
Housed in a dashing Second Empire structure (1855–67), the Picardy Museum contains archaeological exhibits, medieval art and Revolution-era ceramics. It's…
Lille
At the northwestern end of bd de la Liberté, this massive, star-shaped fortress was designed by renowned 17th-century French military architect Vauban…
Côte d’Opale
To encounter the city's long-time commercial bedrock, commercial fishing, head to the quay used by small fishing boats. Hungry seagulls dive and squawk…
Australian Corps Memorial Park
Lille, Flanders & the Somme
Adorned with a large bronze ‘Rising Sun’, the insignia of the Australian Imperial Force, this memorial 6.5km northeast of Villers-Bretonneux stands on the…
Côte d’Opale
Nowadays this 1913-built beauty is Le Touquet's Palais de Congrès (convention centre), but in the town's early-20th-century golden era it was the high…
Brasserie Artisanale des 2 Caps
Côte d’Opale
Historic farm buildings deep in the countryside house one of northern France's best artisan breweries, established in 2003. Sample and buy here, or look…
Côte d’Opale
The house where General José de San Martín, the exiled hero of Argentine, Chilean and Peruvian independence from the Spanish, lived from 1848 until his…
Côte d’Opale
Just south of Ambleteuse along the estuary of the tiny Slack River, the area's wind-sculpted sand dunes are covered with – and stabilised by – clumps of…
Côte d’Opale
The Haute-Ville's minor basilica is locally referred to as a cathedral, although it's never held that status. Its towering 101m-high dome, visible from…
Côte d’Opale
Built between 1777 and 1780 as a private mansion, the Hôtel Desandrouin (also known as the Palais Impérial) was later used by Napoléon in 1803, 1810 and…
Lille
Lille's Louis XVI-style opera house was built between 1907 and 1913 by French architect Louis-Marie Cordonnier, who was responsible for many of northern…
Lille, Flanders & the Somme
A stark reminder of the extensive loss of life on all sides of WWI, this cemetery is the burial place of 17,027 fallen German soldiers. Only 5000 of the…
Dunkirk
Honouring over 4500 British and Commonwealth soldiers ‘with no known grave’, this memorial is next to the British War Graves Section of Dunkirk's town…
Lille
Designed by architect Louis-Marie Cordonnier and built between 1910 and 1921 in neo-Flemish style, Lille's landmark Chamber of Commerce building is…
La Chapelette British & Indian Cemeteries
Lille, Flanders & the Somme
On the rte de Paris (D1017) at the southern edge of Péronne towards St-Quentin, this cemetery has multifaith, multilingual headstones, with a section for…
Côte d’Opale
Boulogne-sur-Mer's red-brick town hall was built in 1734, but its 37m-high square medieval belfry dates from the 12th century. It's free to climb the…
Amiens
One of Europe's earliest skyscrapers, the reinforced concrete Perret Tower (110m) faces the train station. It was designed by Belgian architect Auguste…
Lille
Rising 32m high and topped by two sculpted angels, this triumphal arch was built between 1685 and 1692 to commemorate Louis XIV's conquest of Lille. Its…
Côte d’Opale
Cast in bronze, this statue atop a small pyramid commemorates the pioneering Boulogne-born Egyptologist Auguste Mariette (1821–81), founder of Cairo's…
Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-la-Treille
Lille
Construction on Lille's neoclassical cathedral began in 1854 but its western façade, built from white marble, wasn't completed until 1999.
