The city of Lens is only an hour and 10 minutes north of Paris, near the Belgian border. Here is an outpost of the Louvre called the Louvre-Lens. Set in a modern glass-and-steel art museum with some of the best artworks from its parent museum in Paris.
Lens was a booming industrial city with coal mining until the last pits closed in the 1980’s. The idea to settle a museum with international reputation was quite a challenge.
The heart of the museum, the Galerie du Temps (Gallery of Time), displays the permanent collection. The gallery, a 32,000-square-foot space with aluminum walls and pale stone floors, takes the form of a curving, moving, chronological “River of Time” that allows visitors to navigate the works as they please.
The visitor can admire more than 200 masterpieces, including half a dozen ancient Egyptian sphinxes and Arcimboldo’s painting series “The Four Seasons.
The gallery feeds into the Glass Pavilion, intended for temporary exhibitions, which gives way to the gardens, filled with seasonal plants and modern sculptures.
After the visit, let’s head for Lens city center. The town has interesting Flemish architecture. Badly battered after WWI, the town was rebuilt. Many new structures were finished with Art Deco facades that remain today. The train station is a beautiful example.
After lunch, local buses, ordered in advance, will take us to Lens’s suburbs. The Art Deco basilica and Notre Dame de Lorette Cemetery — the largest French national war cemetery – reminds of the fall of 42000 soldiers during the Great War. A visitor’s center explains local battles.
Also nearby is the impressive Ring of Remembrance, an international memorial. It bears the names of 580,000 soldiers from both sides who died in the region between 1914 and 1918.
Full day guided tour of Lens, including all the visits, monuments, museums and local transports.
The train leaves Paris – Gare du Nord at 07:52am and departs Lens at 04:58pm.