Sights in Northern France
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Fine Arts Museum
Lille's world-renowned Fine Arts Museum , built from 1885 to 1892, has a truly first-rate collection of 15th- to 20th-century paintings, including works by Rubens, Van Dyck and Manet. On the ground floor, there's exquisite porcelain and faïence, much of it of local provenance, while in the basement you'll find classical archaeology, medieval statuary and intricate 18th-century models of the fortified cities of northern France and Belgium.
Tickets are valid for the whole day. Information sheets are available in each hall. An audioguide is planned for the recently-reorganised paintings section.
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Cité Internationale de la Dentelle et de la Mode
Walk past the bizarre topiary and you'll enter the intricate world of lace-making, the industry that once made Calais a textile powerhouse. Opened in 2009, the informative, cutting-edge exhibits trace the history of lace from the early centuries of hand-knotting (some stunning samples are on display). The highlight is watching a century-old mechanical loom with 3500 vertical threads and 11,000 horizontal ones bang, clatter and clunk according to instructions given by perforated Jacquard cards. Signs are in French, English and Dutch. Situated 500m southeast of the Hôtel de Ville.
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Palais des Beaux-Arts
Lille's world-renowned Fine Arts Museum displays a truly first-rate collection of 15th- to 20th-century paintings, including works by Rubens, Van Dyck and Manet. Exquisite porcelain and faience (pottery), much of it of local provenance, is on the ground floor, while in the basement you'll find classical archaeology, medieval statuary and 18th-century scale models of the fortified cities of northern France and Belgium. Tickets are valid for the whole day. Information sheets in French, English and Dutch are available in each hall.
reviewed
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Maison Natale de Charles de Gaulle
The upper-middle-class house in which Charles André Marie Joseph de Gaulle – WWII Resistance leader, architect of the Fifth Republic and ferocious defender of French interests – was born in 1890 is now a museum presenting the French leader in the context of his times, with an emphasis on his connection to French Flanders. Displays include de Gaulle's dainty baptismal robe and some evocative newsreels. The museum is 700m northwest of Musée de l'Hospice Comtesse along rue de la Monnaie and its northward continuation.
reviewed
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Citadelle
The greatest military architect of the 17th century, Sébastien le Prestre de Vauban (p944), designed this massive fortress, shaped like a five-pointed star, after the capture of Lille by France in 1667. Made of some 60 million bricks, it still functions as a French and NATO military base. It stands at the northeastern end of bd de la Liberté. Outside the 2.2km-long outer ramparts is the city centre’s largest park.
Children will love the amusement park, playgroundand small municipal zoo(admission free; h10am- 6pm, closed mid-Dec–mid-Feb), all on the Citadelle’s southeastern flank. Served by the Citadine shuttle bus.
reviewed
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Musée d'Art Moderne Lille-Métropole
Colourful, playful and just plain weird works of modern and contemporary art by masters such as Braque, Calder, Léger, Miró, Modigliani and Picasso are the big draw at the renowned Museum of Modern Art, reopened in late 2010 after extensive renovations. A brand new wing features Art Brut (outsider art). Situated in the Lille suburb of Villeneuve-d'Ascq, in a sculpture park 9km east of Gare Lille-Europe. To get there, take metro line 1 to Pont de Bois and then bus 41 to Parc Urbain-Musée.
reviewed
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Musée Portuaire
The Musée Portuaire, housed in a one-time tobacco warehouse, will delight fans of maritime history and, especially, of model ships. Guided tours (adult/family incl museum €10/25) take visitors aboard a lighthouse ship, a peniche (barge) and the Duchesse Anne, a three-masted training ship built for the German merchant marine in 1901 and acquired by France as WWII reparations. Some signs are in English. Situated 500m northwest of the tourist office.
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La Piscine Musée d'Art et d'Industrie
If Paris can turn a disused train station into a world-class museum (the Musée d'Orsay), why not take an art deco municipal swimming pool (built 1927–32) – an architectural masterpiece inspired by a combination of civic pride and hygienic high-mindedness – and transform it into a temple of the arts? This innovative museum, 12km northeast of Gare Lille-Europe, showcases fine arts, applied arts and sculpture in a delightfully watery environment.
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Vieille Bourse
The Vieille Bourse is a Flemish Renaissance extravaganza ornately decorated with caryatids and cornucopia. Built in 1653, it consists of 24 separate houses set around a richly ornamented interior courtyard that hosts a used-book market (1pm-7pm Tue-Sun); old postcards, comic books and CDs are also on sale. In the warm months locals often gather here to play échecs (chess).
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Catédral Notre Dame
Amiens is deservedly famous for its magnificent Gothic cathedral, the largest in France and a Unesco World Heritage site. Begun in 1220 rather macabrely to house the head of St John the Baptist - enclosed in gold in the northern outer wall of the ambulatory - the soaring Gothic arches and immense vaulted interior are a masterpiece of religious architecture.
reviewed
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Musée de l'Hospice Comtesse
Housed in a remarkably attractive 15th- and 17th-century poorhouse, the Hospice Comtesse Museum features ceramics, earthenware wall tiles, religious art and 17th- and 18th-century paintings and furniture. A rood screen separates the Salle des Malades (Hospital Hall) from a mid-17th century chapel (look up to see a mid-19th century painted ceiling).
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Cap Blanc-Nez
The White-Nosed Cape, as its name translates, is a white cliff - not a cape at all - on a stretch of the Côte d'Opale between Sangatte and Escalles. It affords breathtaking views of the Bay of Wissant, the port of Calais, the Flemish countryside and the cliffs of Kent and is the perfect point to start or end an exploration of the coastline.
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Hospice Comtesse Museum
Housed in an attractive 15th- and 17th-century poorhouse, the Hospice Comtesse Museum features ceramics, faïence wall tiles and 17th- and 18th-century paintings, furniture and religious art. The Salle des Malades (Hospital Hall) is decorated with Lille tapestries. The museum was undergoing renovations as we went to press.
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La Voix du Nord
On the southern side of place du Général de Gaulle, the 1932 Art Deco home of La Voix du Nord , the leading regional daily, has a gilded sculpture of the Three Graces on top. The goddess-topped column (1845) in the square's fountain commemorates the city's successful resistance to the Austrian siege of 1792.
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Musée Mémoire 1939–1945
Housed in a concrete bunker built as a German naval headquarters, this WWII museum displays thousands of period artefacts, including weapons, uniforms and proclamations. Situated incongruously in flowery Parc St-Pierre, next to a boules ground and a children's playground.
reviewed
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Jules Verne House
The father of science fiction writing spent 18 years living in Amiens - including 15 years as town councillor - and his whimsical, turreted home is now a museum. The 19th-century furnished rooms have been left just as they were when Phileas Fogg and Captain Nemo were first captivating the literary world.
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Hortillonages (Floating Gardens)
These market gardens which span a 330-hectare area, have supplied the city with vegetables and flowers since the middle ages. Take a one-hour cruise in a 12-person gondola-like boat from the riverside kiosk and feast your eyes on the flowers and lush vegetable gardens that float throughout the waterway.
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Museum of Fine Arts & Lace
The museum (Musée des Beaux-Arts et de la Dentelle) focuses on two things: modern sculpture, including pieces by Rodin; and the history of lace-making before and after the first lace machines were smuggled over from England - with French government encouragement - in 1816.
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Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-la-Treille
The 19th-century neo-Gothic Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-la-Treille has a strikingly modern (some would say ‘jarring’) west facade (1999) that looks better from inside the nave, where you can admire some decent 19th-century stained glass and mosaics.
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Dunkirk British Memorial
The Dunkirk British Memorial, honouring over 4500 British and Commonwealth soldiers ‘with no known grave’, is next to a Commonwealth military cemetery 1.5km southeast of the tourist office.
reviewed
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Mémorial du Souvenir
To get a feel for the 1940 evacuation, drop by the not-for-profit Mémorial du Souvenir, a museum whose highlights include a 12-minute film, scale models and evocative period uniforms, weapons and photos.
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Colonne Louis XVIII
Colonne Louis XVIII commemorates the French king's return from exile in England after the fall of Napoleon (1814). A close inspection will reveal a Hollywood-style imprint of the royal foot.
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Musée de la Dentelle et de la Mode
This museum is dedicated to Calais' glorious lace-making legacy. It's in a 19th-century lace factory whose façade has been transformed to look like a giant Jacquard punched card.
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Tour de Guet
The 13th-century Tour de Guet, square at the base but octagonal on top, is a rare remnant of pre-20th-century Calais - the rest of the town was virtually demolished during WWII.
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Chambre de Commerce
Nearby place du Théâtre is dominated by the neo-Flemish Chambre de Commerce, topped by a 76m-high spire with a gilded clock. Both were built in the early 20th century.
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