Ideal for a romantic city break within easy reach of the Channel ferry port of Calais just over an hour away, charming Arras is centred on its Baroque Grand’Place with its stunning Flemish-style gabled architecture and its tempting pavement cafés at which to sit and people-watch.
Things to do in Arras:
The UNESCO-listed 16th-century belfry
The best place to get an overview of this main square and indeed the city as a whole is from the top (75m high) of the UNESCO-listed 16th-century belfry adjoining the equally remarkable Flemish-style town hall with its Gothic facade. A tour of the latter reveals superb examples of Art Deco interiors along with fascinating carved wooden panels depicting everyday life in the city in different epochs.
The Cathedral
Arras’ rich history and culture can be explored through these and other sights, including the cathedral and the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Vaast – now home to the Musée des Beaux-Arts. Covering several periods and art forms, this fine arts museum is best known for its medieval sculptures, 17th-century Dutch and French paintings,18th-century ceramics and 19th-century landscapes. Among the artists represented are Champaigne, Poerson and Jouvenet.
The Wellington Quarry
Perhaps the most thought-provoking and moving of all Arras’ sights is the Carrière de Wellington or Wellington Quarry, a museum and memorial to those who fought in the Battle of Arras in 1917.
Ocupying an extensive network of tunnels that were dug under the city during World War I, in turn linking with medieval and Roman tunnels and quarries, the Quarry still contains mining trucks and equipment, food containers, and soldiers’ drawings and inscriptions on its chalk walls.
Les Boves
There are more subterranean passages to be toured beneath Place des Héros – Les Boves, first dug by rich merchants for storage purposes in the 10th century and later also used as shelter by British troops during the First World War.
Market day
Meanwhile, back above ground, the cobbled square has hosted Arras’ main market –which now takes place on Wednesdays and Saturdays – for centuries. Along with the city’s lovely boutiques, patissiers and chocolatiers, it makes Arras a great place for shopping as well as for discovering authentic French culture and world-class art.
The Louvre-Lens
Arras and its surrounds are a magnet for art-lovers, especially since the 2012 opening of what has already become a famous landmark in France, the Louvre-Lens in Lens.
Situated on a disused coal-mining yard, this award-winning building showcases works on medium- or long-term loan from Paris’ Musée du Louvre, organised chronologically, from antiquity to the present day. There is also a lively program of temporary exhibitions and a digital space where you can access information on Louvre masterpieces that are currrently in storage or being restored.
Where to eat near Arras ?
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Useful information
Tourist Board Information of Arras
Hôtel de ville, Place des Héros
F- 62000 Arras
Tel: +33 3 21 51 26 95
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