Edito

…asks the New York Times?
The New York Times recently published a list of 46 Places to Go in 2013. In 26th position, after Burgos in Spain and ahead of Changbaishan in China, come Lens and the new Louvre-Lens.
Lens, an industrial town in the Pas-de-Calais region of northern France, is aiming to become the next Bilbao, comments the influential NY Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/01/10/travel/2013-places-to-go.html?smid=fb-nytimes
300.000 visitors in 3 months
The Louvre-Lens was inaugurated by President Hollande on 4th December and by the 28th had already welcomed its 100,000th visitor. By March this figure had increased to 300,000. Louvre-Lens has become the most popular museum in the north and among the top 5 in France….in just three short months. Not only are visitor numbers so positive, but the project has already created over 100 jobs and many new partnerships with local businesses in the region. A really inspirational start…..
Waiting for Rubens
The Louvre Lens has no permanent collection. It relies on rotating loans from the Paris Louvre. For the next 5 years the main Gallery of Time has 205 masterpieces on show covering a period from the birth of writing in 3,500BC to the mid 19th Century.
From 22 May to 23 September there’ll be a blockbuster exhibition running in parallel; ‘The Europe of Rubens’ with 170 of his works and those of his contemporaries. A definitely not-to-be-missed event….
For more information on current and coming exhibitions