By Beverly Mann
I wandered through centuries, marveling at the masterpieces of De Vinci, Michelangelo, Delacroix, Rafael and 18th-century Islamic artists — all while viewing a country landscape revealed through massive windows. I was encased in the new Louvre-Lens Museum in the former coal-mining town of Lens, situated just a little over an hour by high-speed train from Paris.
Lens has been scarred by two world wars but has now added a new life and cultural spirit to France's Nord-Pas-de-Calais. This new regional museum, which opened free to the public in 2012, showcases 205 Louvre masterpieces for a permanent exhibition running five years, along with temporary exhibits from neighboring museums.
Located on 50 acres that was once a major coal mine, the Louvre-Lens is the creation of Japanese architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, in collaboration with American firm Imrey Culbert. Their concept was to build a structure that was easily accessible and would integrate well into the site without an imposing presence.
From all aspects the Louvre-Lens is another Louvre, but it casts a different light on the collection of this major national museum within three major galleries: Gallery of Time, Glass Pavilion and Temporary Gallery. In addition, the museum abandons the traditional structure of departmentalization. Works are exhibited in a single, huge gallery with no separating partitions. Visitors can walk through and around the art. Even restoration works are in public view.
The opening of this impressive museum in Lens is just another example of the changing face of the Pas-de-Calais region in the past 15 years — from coal-mining and textile towns to culturally savvy cities.
Arras, just a 45-minute TVG train ride from Paris and 20 minutes from Lens, will in the next decade have its Fine Arts Museum form part of the largest combined-arts complex of its kind north of Paris.
After visiting Lens and the museum I continued to Arras with its UNESCO World Heritage town square appearing like an outdoor museum itself. Here I viewed some of its 155 facades and arched gables of Flemish Baroque style.
Nord-Pas-de-Calais is also known for its bevy of belfries. For a bird's-eye view of the city I walked up the spiraling 133 stairs of the Gothic-style belfry attached to the more Renaissance Town Hall. From this vantage point I could see the entire square aglow for the holidays during the month of December.
A city of 80 poets and the cradle of thriving theater and creativity during the Middle Ages, Arras is no stranger to both the performing and visual arts. The Arras Musee des Beaux-Arts housed in the 2-century-old Benedictine Saint-Vaast Abbey features everything from Dutch paintings to 18th-century ceramics and a relief map from 1716.
However, it is the recent arrival of the grand carriages and collections of Chateau de Versailles that has caused the greatest buzz. This is the first exhibit in France devoted to carriages of kings and the first time that the royal Berlin coaches of the Musee des Carrosses de Versailles have been sent out on loan. This show represents the first in a series of exhibitions based upon a ten-year collaboration between Versailles, Arras and the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region.
Before I left the city, I gave myself the royal treatment. I spent the night at the Hotel Univers and indulged in a gastronomic feast at the hotel's Le Clusius Restaurant.
Just north of Arras and less than an hour train ride is the storybook town of Bethune with another UNESCO-listed belfry. Bethune, like Arras, was 90 percent destroyed in World War I but rebuilt in the 1920s, and it was named the regional capital of culture in 2011. A few hours' stroll around the town gave me just enough time to entrench myself in its historic flavor and eclectic architecture from Gothic to Art Deco.
The highlight of this visit was my overnight just 15 minutes away at a hidden find in the little village of Gosnay at Le Robert II Hotel La Chartreuse. Once a 14th-century cloister that was rebuilt again in the 17th century, this charming hotel is more like a lavish Victorian bed-and-breakfast — very homey but elegant. Best of all, it was reasonably priced for its comfort and quality fare. The fresh array of cheeses and house-made pastries made breakfast memorable.
My final stop was in the major coastal town of Calais before taking the train back to Paris. There I visited the Center for Lace and Fashion. The multilevel museum documents the city's extensive lace-making history that spans several hundred years, with antique costumes and original machinery actually functioning for visitors to see. I was enthralled as I watched a worker manually organizing the hundreds of bobbin plates to be used in one of the antique machines on view.
Back in Paris I stayed overnight at the hip and eclectic W Hotel across from the magnificent Opera House and walking distance from the grand Louvre — both reminders of my recent visit to Lens and Pas-de-Calais and that the arts are flourishing there as they are in Paris.
WHEN YOU GO
Air France has direct service to Paris from San Francisco and New York. www.airfrance.com.
All of the places I visited are accessible by rail. Paris to Arras (50 minutes TGV), Arras to Lens (15 minutes), Lens to Bethune (20 minutes), Bethune to Calais (two hours with a change in Lille) and Calais back to Paris (1 hour 45 minutes on TGV): www.raileurope.com.
In Paris: The W Paris-Opera Hotel is near the Louvre and Opera House at 4 Rue Meyerbeer: www.wparisopera.fr.
Les Jardins du Marais is near Place Bastille and the Marais District at 74 Rue Amelot: www.lesjardinsdumarais.com.
In Arras: Hotel Univers, 5 Place de la Croix Rouge, www.univers.najeti.fr
In Gosnay: Le Robert II Hotel La Chartreuse, 1 Rue de Fouquieres, www.lachartreuse.com
For general information about Pas-de-Calais: www.pas-de-calais.com and
www.franceguide.com
Beverly Mann is a freelance travel writer. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
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