Louvre Lens Museum

If you can’t get to the Louvre in Paris, there’s always time to visit Louvre-Lens, its sister museum in the Hauts-de-France. 

Why visit the Louvre-Lens museum?

The Louvre-Lens is a satellite museum to the famous Musée du Louvre in Paris, one of the world’s greatest art galleries.  Louvre-Lens was opened in 2012 and exhibits works on permanent loan from the Louvre collection as well as major temporary exhibitions. Louvre-Lens gives people a chance to see prestigious pieces from the Louvre without having to travel to Paris, and is also an artistic hub, staging musical recitals and family friendly creative activities. It is only just over an hour’s drive from Calais, and is one of the cultural highlights of northern France. 

Louvre-Lens is the second most visited museum in France outside Paris. Credit: Freddy de Hosdent, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A brief history of the Louvre-Lens museum

Lens, a former coal mining town in Hauts-de-France, was chosen as the location of the Louvre’s first off-site museum in 2004. Lens suffered economically after the post-war decline of the mining industry, and after the last colliery closed in 1986 unemployment rose significantly. The town was also devastated by both world wars. The museum was seen as a major regeneration project for the area. 

Louvre-Lens is located in a former mining yard, surrounded by 50 acres of parkland. Natural light floods into the low level modern glass and steel building, which was designed by the Japanese architects SANAA. In its first year the museum attracted visitor numbers of 900,000, far exceeding initial expectations, and Louvre-Lens has become the second most popular museum in France outside of Paris.

What can you see at the Louvre-Lens?

Explore the Galerie du Temps

In Galerie du Temps you take a tour through 5,000 years of art history. Pierre Goiffon, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

In the museum’s main wing, the Galerie du Temps (Time Gallery) offers an unusual route through the history of art, from the invention of writing in Mesopotamia in the 4th millennium BC, through to the industrial revolution in Europe in the mid-19th century. Over 200 masterpieces from the Louvre are exhibited in one spectacular area covering 3000m². The innovative staging is both chronological and multidisciplinary, offering visitors a special insight into eras, techniques and civilisations. Ancient Greek and Egyptian sculpture can be seen in the same room as Renaissance paintings – a unique way to compare civilisations and cultures. 

The Pavillon de Verre and the temporary exhibitions 

The Pavillon de Verre (glass pavilion) is where the Louvre-Lens stages its exhibitions of contemporary art, experimental art and art with a connection to the local area. Exhibitions in this space have included installations offering fresh perspectives on art history, humanity, society and industry. The museum usually stages two exhibitions each year in its temporary gallery. These are high profile, ticketed exhibitions which receive significant publicity. Past exhibitions have ranged from 19th-century Polish painting to an exploration of the Gothic from medieval cathedrals to modern fashion.  

Stroll through the surrounding park

Glass, steel and grass: the park at Louvre-Lens. Madeira78, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The green space surrounding the museum has been transformed into a delightful landscaped park, with paths that gently wind through the natural humps and bumps of this former coal pit. Flowers meadows, forest, lawn and water features combine with shale and sandstone deposits from the days of the mine, now grassy banks where children can let off some steam. In the words of its designer, Catherine Mosbach, “in the past the boundaries of the site were meant to keep those who were not working at the mine from entering. My job is to create the opposite effect, the park must open its arms to the outside.”

Admire the architecture

The building itself takes inspiration from its prestigious Parisian parent, but maybe not in a way that is instantly apparent. In fact the low level, long glass boxes of Louvre-Lens seem as different as possible to the classical grandeur of the Louvre. But the five distinct blocks, all joined together at their corners, act like wings of the main ‘Galerie du Temps’ at the centre, evoking the winged floorplan of the Paris attraction. Anyone who loves architecture will be fascinated by this building, especially the way it uses natural light and blends discreetly with the landscape. 

Enjoy family-friendly activities

Louvre-Lens offer a range of artistic workshops suitable for teenagers and younger children, as well as adults. They are usually held at weekends, and take inspiration from the museum’s works and its temporary exhibitions. You could be making papier-mâché relief artworks, learning about medieval illumination or painting glass. There are also workshops to learn different artistic techniques, nature walks in the park, baby and toddler mornings and wellness and health exercises.  

Things to do near the museum

The ‘terrils’ around Lens have been transformed into tourist attractions

This part of northern France is largely undiscovered by tourists, but with its UNESCO-listed industrial heritage, its museums and foodie culture, it is growing in popularity. ‘Mining and dining’ sums up many a weekend here!  

‘Spoil’ yourself with some sustainable tourism 

The coal industry may have gone from Lens, but the legacy of it lives on with the ‘terrils’, the slag or spoil heaps that rise like post-industrial pyramids around the town and the surrounding area. Perhaps surprisingly the heaps, such as Base 11/19, have become the focus of a boom in sustainable tourism, attracting nature lovers, runners, cyclists and hikers, keen to explore the biodiversity and challenging terrain of these mounds, after nature has reclaimed them. Protected species and rare plants can now be seen and heard here, like the European nightjar. Their fertile soil mean there are even vineyards on the terrils! 

Canadian National Vimy Memorial 

The area around Lens saw intense fighting during the First World War, and only 15 minutes drive away is the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, commemorating the 60,000 Canadian soldiers who died during the conflict, and especially during the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Walter Seymour Allward’s limestone monument rises 27 metres at its highest point, overlooking the Douai Plain from the highest point of Vimy Ridge. Most of the battlefield itself is inaccessible, due to the amount of unexploded munitions that still lie there, but tours of the reconstructed tunnels and trenches can be made. 

Plan your visit to Louvre-Lens

The reception hall, Louvre-Lens. Jean-Pierre Dalbéra from Paris, France, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Driving to Lens from Calais 

It takes around 1 hour 10 minutes to drive the 70 miles (113km) to the Louvre-Lens museum from the LeShuttle terminal in Calais. From Calais take the A26 motorway towards Arras, and on the outskirts of Lens take the A21, signposted Liévin/Lens/Douai/Lille. There are signs to Louvre-Lens once you are on this local main road. 

Opening hours and tickets

Louvre-Lens is open every day of the week except Tuesdays, all year round, from 10am to 6pm. The museum is closed on Tuesdays and the following public holidays – January 1st, May 1st, December 25th . The park is open every day from 7am – 9pm from May 1st to October 31st, and 8am – 7pm from November 1st to April 30th. Entry to  Galerie du Temps and Pavillion de Verre is free, and tickets for the temporary exhibitions usually cost between €12-18 for adults. 

How is Louvre-Lens different from the Paris Louvre?

The main difference between Louvre-Lens and the Louvre in Paris is the size of the museum. Louvre-Lens is much smaller, and contains only a fraction of the items exhibited in the Louvre, which is the world’s largest art museum. But it is free to enter Louvre-Lens, whereas basic tickets for the Louvre cost at least €22. 

Visit the Louvre-Lens museum – book your trip today

If you’re in Hauts-de-France and love art, you simply have to see Louvre-Lens. Why not combine it with a visit to La Piscine, another majestic museum in nearby Roubaix? Remember, Calais is just 35 minutes from Folkestone with LeShuttle.