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DESTINATIONS RELOADED
Le Louvre-Lens:
a Crossroads of Time,
Civilization, Art and
Culture
Sound and light show
at the Royal Château of Blois
© C. Mouton - CRT Centre-Val de Loire
A beautiful building in
the heart of the mining
basin, the Louvre-Lens (a
decentralised wing of the
Paris Museum) has already
hosted more than two
million visitors since 2012.
Built on the site of a former
mine, the Louvre-Lens
exposes and explains the
masterpieces of the past,
through these treasures
of humanity that allow one
to better understand the
present and to look towards
the future.
Cradled in light, the Gallery
of Time is exhibiting, for 5
Gallery of Time
years, the masterpieces of
the Louvre in the Museum
of the Louvre-Lens. All
civilizations and techniques
are represented, thus
embracing the chronological
and geographical extent
of the collections from
the Louvre Museum. The
Gallery of time is organised
into 3 main periods: 70
works from antiquity, 45
from the middle ages and
90 modern-day works. And
the Gallery of time changes:
each anniversary of the
inauguration of the Museum
sees a renewal of the works.
The Loire Valley:
Cradle of French History
With its promise of “a trip to France”,
the Val de Loire is an area that boasts
many of France’s top assets
Extending from the Loiret
to the Loire estuary,
encompassing the river itself,
the UNESCO-listed Loire, the
Royal Loire and its Châteaux,
are the cradle of France’s
history, with spectacular
gardens and vineyards.
NIGHT-TIME EVENTS AT
THE LOIRE’S CHÂTEAUX
At nightfall, the lights of
the châteaux reflect in
the Loire, inspiring the
visitor’s imagination.
The illuminations vary
with a dreamlike quality
from château to château,
sometimes dancing to the
narrations of storytellers and
Renaissance music rhythms.
Such is the magic of the
sound and light shows staged
at the Royal Château of Blois
and Château of Amboise.
These shows provide a fresh
aspect to the scheduled
night visits under the stars,
such as the Chaumont-sur-
Loire International Garden
Festival, the Chenonceau
night-time walk or the “Night
of a Thousand Lights” in
Villandry.
USPs
• Exhibition of masterpieces from the Louvre, works
of antiquity, the middle ages and the modern era in
a single space.
• The historical mining center of Lewarde enables
one to better understand the mine, its miners, its
camps, its slag heaps, and its generations who worked
underground.
• Local trends: Michelin star chefs, award-winning
beers, ripened cheeses... the surroundings of the
Louvre-Lens museum offer a swathe of gastronomic
experiences.
USPs
• 21 châteaux qualified as “Grands Sites du Val de
Loire”.
• “La Loire à vélo”: an immense 800-kilometre cycle
tourism route.
• The Loire Valley vineyards: 50 appellations,
thousands of producers, the greatest diversity of wines
in the world
(CDG, ORY), Nantes (NTE), Tours (TUF)
Lille (LIL), Paris (CDG, ORY)
Paris
Lens Station
Orléans or Tours Station
20 France: Destinations to (re)discover france.fr