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Art trip advice

Thanks to help from this forum, I have worked out an itinerary to see some art in a six day timeframe. Any thoughts on this?

July 27th: Arrive Brussels late afternoon, train to Antwerp
July 28th: KMSKA museum, and either the FUMU or the small open version of the Museum Mayer Van den Bergh
July 29th: Train to Lille. Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille.
July 30th: La Piscine, maybe the reopened LaM modern art museum
July 31st: Go to Louvre Lens in morning, then train to Rouen
August 1st: Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen and the metalworks museum, or ceramics
August 2nd: Train to Beauvais for flight back to Dublin

One question I have is if anyone thinks I should leave something out to go to the MuMa Le Havre instead? Six nights, two in Antwerp, two in Lille, two in Rouen, we can easily handle that the way we travel. Thanks for any opinions!

Iggy

Posted by
30427 posts

I've been to most of those museums, though Rouen was part of a different trip, and I think it looks good. I travel a lot more slowly, but it seems doable if you don't wander off course too much.

I haven't been to Le Havre, so no help on that point.

Posted by
122 posts

Acraven, you are the best! You've helped me a lot the last couple of weeks as I'm trying to figure out these precious six days. Thank you so much!!

Posted by
9487 posts

”August 1st: Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen and the metalworks museum, or ceramics”

I liked the first one a lot -partly because it wasn’t crowded, so I could really enjoy the beautiful paintings. The metalwork, Musée Le Secq des Tournelles, was fascinating! I spent a lot of time there. The ceramics museum was a disappointment for my expectations; you may feel differently.

The evening illumination show in Rouen is also a great artistic event!

Posted by
2609 posts

I don't know how you can do it. I was just in Brussels, and in 3 full days i couldn't see all the museums I wanted. I don't think a day trip to Lille is super practical, and I've never spent less than 6 hours at a time in the Louvre, and that's in multiple visits. The Musee Beau Arts in Rouen is fantastic. I can't see how you could see that and the metalworking museum in one day without literally running through them. And the metalwork on the buildings of Rouen is possibly even better than what's in the museum.

If you stay the night in Rouen, get up early, walk the park at the Hotel de Ville, then through the antique district, and you'll come out right by the Beau Arts.

Posted by
2138 posts

I’m curious; why did you decided not to spend these same 6 nights in The Netherlands and Belgium, like you were planning to do just 2 weeks ago?

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/netherlands/is-chatgpt-correct

That itinerary looked great and was also very art focused with some great museums. The cities you planned to visit in that NL-BE itinerary are located much closer together compared to this one, giving you a good use of your 6 days.
This new itinerary includes some very long train rides. Compared to your earlier itinerary you will now spend much more time on trains and less time in museums. If that’s what you want then that’s fine, but as you say yourself these 6 days are precious, so it’s a bit confusing you want to spend a relatively large part of them on trains.

Posted by
290 posts

I've not been to that museum in Le Havre, but Le Havre itself was devastated during the war and it's not an attractive city. I do remember a brutalist church with yellow and green stained glass. Striking but very ugly. Unless you only wanted to see that museum specifically, and you must have your reasons for bringing it up here, I would not spend my time there.

Lavandula