'Un jour'... in the Hauts de France, discovering its heart of heritage

Inspiration

Colombe Clier
© Colombe Clier

Reading time: 0 minPublished on 10 March 2023

A story unfolds along the path we walk, trusting we will find only ourselves. Pristine wild spaces, sooty mountains, a swimming pool that is also a museum, a modern chateau, ancestral crafts, and a gallery of time... Here, in this traditional cradle of industry with its contrasting landscapes, a new kind of cultural exploration takes shape.

Fort-Mahon-Plage - The Somme Bay

Colombe Clier
© Colombe Clier

It feels like reaching the ends of the Earth after an arduous journey... More alive than ever before, in this fairy-tale place born of the shifting tides. This encounter with powerful, ever-changing nature, resonates with the beauty and sensuality of the sand dunes.

Claeyssens de Wambrechies Distillery

Colombe Clier
© Colombe Clier

Whisky and jenever fill the air as the stills chug away. In Wambrechie, the distillery has been humming away for more than 200 years, and the spirits come with their own symphony. A listed historic monument, the distillery is a shining example of late 19th century industrial architecture.

Roubaix, La Piscine André Diligent Art and Industrial Museum

Colombe Clier
© Colombe Clier

This is a place where once crossed paths wealth captains of industry and their workers... in their bathing suits. Today, works of art gather around the glassy pool to tell their tale in this progressive museum. In their diversity of genres and styles, they evoke the defining spirit of Roubaix swimming pool in the 1930s.

The Slagheaps of Loos-en-Gohelle

Colombe Clier
© Colombe Clier

What can possibly be found at the top of a slagheap? Perhaps views of a world on its head? Or the chance to embrace the subterranean world of the mines? Atop the carboniferous sandstone and schist, nature defies the laws of gravity to turn these sooty black mountains greener every year.

Jean Bracq Lace

Colombe Clier
© Colombe Clier

Machinery grinds, clinks, rolls and thumps. Enter the Jean Bracq workshop with a pounding heart, and leave with a body entranced. Since 1889, 40 leavers have been weaving the contours of the highest quality lace to their repetitive, frenetic beat.

Louvre-Lens Museum

© Colombe Clier - Sanaa - Imrey Culbert -Mosbach Paysagiste - Studio Gardère
© © Colombe Clier - Sanaa - Imrey Culbert -Mosbach Paysagiste - Studio Gardère

The museum emerges from twin slag heaps, resplendent in glass and aluminium, standing out or blending in depending on the weather. Just like the art collections it exhibits, it is a metaphor for a journey through space and time.

Villa Cavrois - Centre des Monuments Nationaux

Colombe Clier
© Colombe Clier

Light brazenly rushes in and highlights the spaces of this modern chateau with their radical geometry, designed by the architect Robert Mallet Stevens for the industrialist Paul Cavrois, in 1932. Come nightfall, the warm bricks vanish and the tawny owls strike up their serenade.



__These sites are all certified by French heritage bodies... __

Here, you are invited to explore the true gems of French heritage. Launched by the French Ministry of Culture, Un jour is a rallying call for 19 French heritage organisations to jointly promote the breadth and diversity of French culture and heritage found throughout the country. These certifications celebrate this diversity and attest to the quality of the attractions on offer. Come with us and experience the wonder of French heritage...


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By France.fr

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