LES BEAUX ARTS - A bit of education

Amazing how much the French spend publicly on les Beaux Arts and public musée. It's great. For the artistically interested I would recommend the following, in no order of preference:

La Piscine - Musée d'Art et d'Industrie de Roubaix

What an amazing space converted from an Art Deco swimming pool, both around the swimming pool and in the changing cubicles. Individual cubicles exiting straight onto the pool all in specially made bricks in white glaze. Yes and Picasso's. The best was the pattern books. Roubaix was known for woven fabrics and they have thousands of big books of fabric samples from individual mills at a particular date. They are amazing and so fresh they should be on the market today. No more fabric talk.

Musée d'Art Moderne Lille-Métropole

Lots of controversial pieces including a new wing devoted to La Collection D'Art Brut, one of the only collections, all a lot strange!

Musée du Louvre-Lens

Lens a former mining town. All mines closed (I think), OK let's do a Bilbao ie a Guggenheim Art Gallery and encourage inward investment/tourism. Well I think it's working. Certainly the museum/gallery is amazing a huge low translucent building on a slope. The main exhibition space starts at the top of the slope with prehistoric art and you walk down the equivalent of a few football pitches of art/sculpture to the present day. As the Louvre (Paris) has a few bits of art in the basement that it wasn't displaying, it shipped them up to Lens so the items on display are the best. 

Last but not least Palais de Beaux-Arts de Lille. Lots of stuff, and great modern chandeliers. The most fascinating exhibits are the models of all the northern border towns of France in the 16/1700's. Yes I know it sounds boring but they are amazing. Each model is the size of our living room in Bath with every house, window, church, tree etc. All in 3D to illustrate the defences of the town. These models took 10 to 20 years to make and are all still in existence and in remarkable condition.

Well there's the educational bit. Normal service will be resumed. Got a 5 + km tunnel to do tomorrow!