This museum was designed by renowned Japanese architect SANAA, and plays with the concept of inside…read morev.s. outside. The experience begins at the train station - Lens is 1hr north from Paris - and winds through a lovely wooded park to the museum. The architect's touch is present but very subtly. There is a unassuming fence of reeds on the right, wiring for path lighting weaves back and forth across the trees, the informational placards for the area have raised markings so it's a joy to see AND feel your bearings. The museum itself has a low slung profile and beautifully reflects the natural landscape around it. At times it seems the building is hardly there as trees and clouds move across its surface. The interior is just as stunning, circular pods discovered outside in the concrete are repeated inside as pop-up library, information, and eating areas. Exhibits are displayed in chronological order so it's easy for any adult or child to glance up to see what millennia they're currently "in". Best of all, there's lockers for storing your bags if you're in transit from Paris to another city and.... it's free!! (as of June 2015)

Cool space. Very impressive and true to the sites history as mine…read more Perm collection is OK. A few great pieces, lots of high-end filler. It's the Louvres little brother, after all. Temp exhibit on war was outstanding. The curator did a great job capturing the essence of war-related art and it's role in our understanding of conflict, I almost missed it but you can see the storage area for priceless pieces on the lower level. That was kind of cool. The food in the cafeteria was OK. Nothing special but better than your average museum cafeteria.

If you are after a very alternative and different museum, this may be one option - simply put, this…read moresued to be a hospital but the previous building and structure has been transformed to now house an art gallery or museum. The different angle alone may be worth the visit and a quick snap of the camera. In terms of what is on display however, this was less impressive (when compared against other museums in and around Lille). Relatively easy to locate on the map and not in the most inconvenient of places, even if this do not fancy this after a quick peek, there is very little to lose.

Terrific museum We spent the best part of a rainy Saturday…read moreafternoon in this surprisingly good art museum. There was an extensive and varied collection of art and it was terrific value at €7. It would have been great if there had been some information in English.

I'm going to be very upfront in the beginning of this review, when I arrived at Palais des Beaux…read moreArts I was pretty burnt out with museums at this point, it was extremely cold, raining, and we were waiting in a line outside for like twenty minutes so the start to this experience was pretty miserable. Once we got into the building and through the security checkpoint, you could tell right away that this place was pretty beautiful. The building itself is 3 stories and each floor has something a little bit different to offer you. We headed down first and spent some time looking at the statues which were absolutely incredible, followed by the second floor which was a mixture of different pieces of art and a dome style room you could sit on beanbags and watch something. The main event of the show was upstairs where I couldn't even estimate the insane amount of paintings that fill the walls of the different colored rooms. The rooms themselves are all tall and covered from floor to ceiling with such incredible pieces, and everything you think you are done suddenly the red painted rooms turn into white rooms or green rooms and it just keeps going, it was truly remarkable. Overall, the Palais des Beaux Arts was a fantastic place to spend an hour or so learning about French art. Did I leave some stuff out? Yeah, because this was like my 23rd museum and at some point they start blending together. I loved how diverse the art here was and really did enjoy walking around, I highly recommend checking this place out if you are in Lille.