Lens, Paris, and Amsterdam sequence

I would definitely not backtrack to Paris, as it is bound to be significantly more expensive.
I would also say that going to Lens just for the Louvre Lens might leave you disappointed: the main gallery is a fantastically well-curated exhibit, but it is not large. Lens combines well with a few hours in Lille; would you consider spending the night in Lille?

Thank you balso, I am open to spending the night in Lille, for sure. Do you have recommendations for anything to see in Lille while we're there? I do have the RS France Guidebook (as well as the Paris one)

My daughter must be one of Giuseppe Arcimboldo's biggest living fans. She is so excited to see his 4 seasons all in a row "just as Arcimboldo wanted them displayed!" so I really don't think she'll be disappointed if that's the only thing we see.

Edit: it looks like under 3 hrs from Lille to Amsterdam on Eurostar

The Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lille looks great!

Lille is a fabulous city and the central old town and its architecture - both flamboyant and humble -- will richly repay a wander. Add in the Musée des Beaux Arts, wonderful restaurants and cafés, and it's a great stop.

I liked Lille a lot. In addition to the fine-arts museum, there's a museum of modern, contemporary and naive art. I missed it because its been closed for major work, but it's supposed to reopen before May.

I also really liked La Piscine, the art/ceramics museum located in an Art Nouveau swimming facility. It's in Roubaix, sort of a suburb of Lille so an easy side-trip.

The Louvre-Lens is not close to the Lens train station; I think it's about 2 miles away. I walked it, but that's probably not something you'll want to do with your limited time. There's bus service at least heading in the right direction, but check on its frequency for the day of the week you anticipate making the trip. The museum isn't right in a commercial or residential area.

A lot of French museums take part in European Museum Night, staying open (usually with free entry) on the designated evening. The date has sometimes been May 18. I think it was May 17 this year. A quick Google suggests the date for 2026 may be May 23. This is a way to squeeze in an extra museum or two, though the usual warning about avoiding highly popular museums on free-entry days applies.

A possible wrinkle is that museums sometimes plan to open a new temporary exhibition on Museum Night, which can mean part of the museum is closed in the lead-up to Museum Night for installation of the exhibition. Monitor the websites of museums you're interested in if you'll be traveling in May prior to Museum Night so you aren't disappointed.

Thank you Kim and acraven! I'll look at bus schedules and try to figure out what we're doing.

The Louvre-Lens is not close to the Lens train station; I think it's about 2 miles away. I walked it, but that's probably not something you'll want to do with your limited time.

it's about 1 mile on a dedicated path, a 20-25 min walk, otherwise there is indeed a bus.

Thanks balso. A mile is perfectly manageable.

The Palais de Beaux Arts in Lille is a large, world-class museum, not to be missed. Lille's nickname is "Little Paris", although I presume it is more diverse than it was 25 years ago, like the other large cities of Europe. Some people are interested in the almost miniature, automated (driverless) subway line. The New York Times long ago had a note on Belgian food still available in French Lille.

With daytrips by cheap, unreserved train, it's easy to spend a busy full week in Amsterdam. Except the direct Eurostar Paris-Amsterdam, it's a big travel jump. Have you considered Antwerp/Bruges/Ghent/Brussels/Leuven, and flying home from Brussels? (Of course those four places can be done from one hotel, in any of them-I like Antwerp.

I am also interested in Louvre Lens, but maybe you (we) should check how many square feet of exhibition space they have, and how many "treasures of the Louvre" are actually there on exhibit?

Hi Tim,
I haven't considered Antwerp/Bruges/Ghent/Brussels/Leuven very much because the draw of Amsterdam includes the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum, Anne Frank House, and in Haarlem, the CorrieTen Boom House. But I'm sure we could find plenty to do with Belgium, for sure. I would have to find the right art museums to get her to change her mind at this point.

For my daughter, the fact that the "vegetable heads" are at the Louvre Lens, are enough motivation for her, but we have watched videos from their site and looked at their website quite a bit.

The current closure of two major parts of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels makes this perhaps not the best time for an art-focused traveler to hit that city. Although I spent 13 days in the city and saw quite a lot of art, I spent most of my time there gawking at Art Nouveau architecture (and I didn't see it all).

I'm really confused about routes and how to get from Lille to Amsterdam. I've looked on the SNCF site https://www.sncf-connect.com/en-en/home/shop/results/outward but it says 15 Euros under the date but then the specific times, if available, are mostly 95 Euros. Wouldn't we be using the Eurostar or is there a better way to look these up? Or is it truly just easier to go from Paris to Amsterdam? Geographically it doesn't make sense to me to back track to Paris, but perhaps there are more direct Eurostar trains that route? Thank you so much for any help. This is really out of my element.