Fantastic museum primarily concerning Mons and the surrounding area during pre-Napoleonic wars…read morethrough the end of WW2. The museum is well worth the €9.00 per person cost. While there are a lot of displays with tons of interesting items, there is a lot of reading to do, so bringing small children or those with ADD/ADHD would not be good. But for those that love history, and especially Military history this is an exciting museum rich in history. Plan to spend 2-3 hours or more if you want to see everything. Displays are in 4 languages (Fr, De, En, NL). Mons has changed hands more often than dollar bills have seen g-strings.... well maybe not that much...lol

This is a new museum and it is fantastic! It takes you through Mons during 2 world wars and as…read morewell with the new exhibit, the Napoleonic war. This museum is very educational and the displays are phenomenal! This is a must see when in Mons. You will definitely learn a lot about Mons and Belgium.

The BAM, as the Mons art museum is known, has gone through funny periods where it would be open and…read morethen close for renovation, then open and close again. Well I'm happy to say that it reopened last autumn with an exhibition by Andy Warhol. This lasted for a few months and I was lucky enough to get to see the exhibition on the very last day. That was close! The museum has been updated, making it more modern although I only noticed subtle changes from the past. Still it is a great place to go check out some great art. I'm not sure what the permanent exhibition will contain since Warhol took up just about every bit of real estate during the past months. In the basement however there was art work by local university students and I must say, some impressive pieces. In 2015 Mons will be a European City of Culture and from what I hear, there will be a very big Vincent Van Gogh exhibition. The Dutch artist spent a year of his life in the Mons area.

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.

This place is magnificent! Came here for the Week-End Familial for L'exposition of Degas Sculpteur…read more Throughout my years of Art History, none of my professors elaborated on the controversy revolving Edgar Degas' work. I have seen Degas work many times and his most notable sculpteur La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans lives at at Musée D'Orsay, which I have seen there and now here. I didn't know ballerinas back then were considered lower class, since the girl's family would push them to do ballet in hopes to catch an eye of the wealthy. It's almost a form of pedophile...actually it is! Degas also made this ballerina have a face of criminals. So a lot of people weren't fans of him. Moving on out of Degas, this Musée isn't magnificent because of Degas pieces...it's breathtaking because the Philanthropist kept the look and feel of La Piscine. The swimming pool was constructed between 1927 and 1932 by the Lille architect Albert Baert. It closed as a swimming pool in 1985, and was remodelled as a museum by the architect Jean-Paul Philippon, opening in 2000. A modern entrance building, special exhibition space and garden were constructed within the roof-less shell of an adjoining textile factory. The museum's permanent collection has its origins in 1835, when a collection of fabric samples from the many local textile factories was started. By 1898 the collection was housed in the National High School of Arts and Textile Industry (ENSAIT), and was seen as a way of cultivating the tastes of the town's workers, foremen and manufacturers. To this end the collection combined elements of literature, fine-arts, science and industrial products. The ENSAIT museum closed with the onset of World War II, and never reopened. From 1899 the collections were displayed in Roubaix's town hall, in preparation for the opening of La Piscine in 2000. L thought I would enjoy this Musée more, since I am not really into Modern Art and since I have a background in Textile...this would be the better choice. They have art hanging on the ceilings and original shower stalls within, beautiful garden and also they have Meert here.

Very nice atmosphere for this special museum. It has been built into the old swimming pool of…read moreRoubaix and kept plenty of accessories from this old time. You can admire sculptures and paintings there gathered by genre. You have a restaurant inside, an auditorium and a fabric room you can rent for your meetings.

I enjoyed my visit here. I recommend buying tickets online in advance so you don't need to wait in…read moreline or wait longer to enter if the place fills up (which that happened to me). Entrance gives you a guided tour in a variety of languages that was entertaining for all. I enjoyed being able to walk around the grounds and see most of the place. The views up top were also nice. Great way to spend about two hours of your time and soak in some castle time.

Super good experience to see the inside of a medieval castle of Gent. Only thing was it was a…read morelittle creepy when I was the only individual and parts of the castles. But super fun experience and very interesting walk throughout the castle. Tickets are €13 which is pretty affordable and helps support the little city of Gent. You're also able to get an audio guide through the gift shop if you are interested. It's pretty interesting and a good way to spend a couple hours learning about the history of Gent.

My mother and I visited this museum while we were in Brussels a few months ago and it was another…read moregreat museum in Brussels. They have a TON of paintings and sculptures. They have some great stuff here and I really liked the space in between each piece of art, as odd as that sounds, it let you spread out a bit when looking at a painting. There are many, huge rooms on two floors and there was something around every corner. This place was really cool and I would definitely visit here again.

This is one of Belgium's most famous fine arts museum. The buying tickets process is a bit…read morecomplicated as there are options to buy one exhibit or multiple exhibits. Either way, the ticket prices aren't hugely expensive and each exhibit is quite good so even if you buy the wrong exhibit, you'll have a good time. The museum itself is huge and I really appreciate them having electronic kiosks here and there to tell the stories of the paintings. There was one kiosk explaining how a painting of a family portrait got chopped off into three bits and the process of then identifying these pieces as a singular unit. I thought the story was quite incredibly as you not only learn about the art but also the way the museum conducts its business. While I was walking, I noticed that there was an English led tour going on and decided to join in. Not sure if this is for additional moneys, but honestly I would highly HIGHLY recommend. This is the only reason why the museum would get a 5-stars. The explainer was absolutely amazing, I definitely think that this was the best art museum tour I have ever been on. The guide didn't talk about many paintings, maybe 10-15 during the 1 hour tour, but every single painting she did talk about had such an interesting backstory and you're not learning just about the history but also about how the museum curates its work. You will definitely be able to get a deeper sense of appreciation for this place. Overall, highly recommend visiting, especially if you're deciding on going on a tour. The surrounding areas are also very nice too and would highly recommend checking out the surrounding architectures after the gallery visit.