So, it was unlikely I would ever venture into this part of Nord-pas-de-Calais. That has now changed thanks to erection of the €150m (£122m) satellite gallery of Paris's Louvre Museum.

The Louvre in Lens, though housing many of the Louvre-Paris artworks, looks and feels completely different. The low-slung building, made from aluminium and glass, is built on a site of a former coal mine.

At first glance it looks like makeshift sheds, but then it shimmers gloriously in the sunshine. By night it absolutely gleams in the moonlight, throwing different light formations over tatty shops and rundown miner's houses nearby.

Though open to the public, it's still a work in progress. I visited on a rainy day and what will one day be a series of green, tree-lined and floral landscapes there were sections of mud, some of which I had to step over.

Yet the building is impressive in that the walls are so thin and light they seem to be nothing more than a sheer membrane that separates the interior from the exterior. Designed by Sanaa, this Japanese architectural style has been acclaimed for creating barely perceptible buildings. The idea is "to form a seamless continuity between inside and out".

It was created, in part, to silence critics who claim that high-end art is limited to Paris, but what of the art? There are two gallery spaces. The temporary space changes frequently but the permanent space (which is currently free to enter) displays some of the most precious artworks on the planet. They are selected from the core collection of the 200-year-old nike roshe run women sale Parisian institution yet are placed seemingly without rhyme or reason in a huge nike air max 1 em sale top-lit hall the size of a football pitch. Sculptures and paintings are balanced on freestanding plinths and you can wander around the Egyptian carvings and Roman mosaics, Islamic ceramics and Renaissance oils freely. Not a single piece was hung on any wall anywhere. It felt like I was in a warehouse of items soon to be auctioned.

"In the Louvre in Paris, everything is exhibited in rigid departments, like an encyclopaedia of art," says Adrien Gardère, responsible for the exhibition design of the Lens outpost.

"Here, we are bringing sculpture and painting together, from different periods and geographical areas, to create fruitful confrontations."

This has, to my mind, been accomplished, but there is not enough artwork to view to make a trip to Lens worthwhile. Also, traditionalists may find the experience disconcerting, perhaps preferring the lines of corridors and a more encyclopedic layout.

To scratch this itch, and to make more of your time in Northern France, I suggest visiting the nearby Flemish town of Arras. Unlike Lens, it has lots to attract visitors. Gabled buildings, gorgeous squares, a fine array of restaurants, a rich heritage and lively vibe offer a fine Flemish-Gallic experience.

It is also home to a fine arts museum, Musee Des Beaux Arts d'Arrass (entry: €7). This is where another Parisian gallery – the Chateau de Versailles – has given a collection to a northern French town. The scheme will continue for ten years comprising five 18-month long exhibitions at the Saint-Vasst Abbey. Currently, the theme is horse-drawn carriages.

It may sound like a yawn but the collection is eye-poppingly ornate. And surprisingly diverse, viewed alongside sculptures, sledges, sedan chairs, and carriages.

Particularly grand is Napoleon I's marriage procession carriage, Charles X's coronation coach and the funeral hearse of Louise XVIII.

While in Arras, consider a visit to the underground Wellington Quarry (entry: €6.80), opened in 2008. In 1914, Arras was the target of German bombing. In 1916-18 under British command, 500 miners from the New Zealand Tunnelling Company were brought in, including Maori and Pacific Islanders, recruited from the gold and coal mining districts of the country to dig 12 miles of tunnels.

They worked alongside Royal Engineer tunnelling companies, made up by now of British coal miners and expert tunnellers who had built the London Underground. They were built without the knowledge of the Germans. Around 1,500 soldiers lived here and the story of their lives is told in a most evocative way.

WHERE TO STAY:

Holiday Inn Express is close to Arrass centre. Twin rooms from €90

HOW TO GET THERE:

Train: Lens train station has several regional rail connections and is also on the Paris-Dunkerque TGV line. There is a shuttle bus connecting the station with Louvre and it is free for the first year.

Ferry: P&O Ferries has up to 23 return sailings daily on Dover-Calais route, crossing in 90 minutes. Short break fares (up to three days) from £38 return for car and passengers. Upgrade to club lounge for £12 pp (each way).

Flights: Lille International Airport is less than 30 km from Lens. Find flights to Lille from your nearest airport:

Read also: Ski Guide: St Anton, Tyrol, Austria

ABOUT:
Despite its appearance as a quaint Tyrolean village, Ischgl has long been nicknamed "the party capital of the Alps". With an extensive piste network – 238km to be precise – and more than 40 bars, discos and nightclubs in the resort, Ischgl has become popular with those looking to ski hard, and party hard.

SKI RUNS:
Most of the skiing in Ischgl is above the tree line, but the area is vast and interesting. The hub of the skiing is at Idalp, which is easily reached by the 24-person Silvrettabahn lift. From here, multiple chairlifts whisk you to the top of the mountain. The resort is generally suited to intermediate or advanced skiers, as it comprises 18% blues, 61% reds and 21% blacks.

Idalp: The plateau at Idalp is the starting place for beginners and intermediates. The pistes around the area range from gentle blues, to slightly more challenging red runs. The slopes here to tend to get busy at the end of the day, as does the run back to the resort.

Alp Trida: Located on the Swiss side, Alp Trida, offers some great motorway cruising options and the lifts back up are fast and efficient. The runs around the area are an intermediates haven, yet fun for faster skiers as well.

Fimbatal: Head to the woods here on a snowy day. Tree skiing is great fun and offers protection from the elements. Take the lift from Bodenalp to reach the woods.

WHY GO THERE?
The challenge: The longest on-piste challenge for skiers is the 11km, aptly named piste 11, said to be one of the longest runs in Austria. If you're looking for an adrenaline rush, then piste 14a – with a gradient of over 70% – offers experts and exciting challenge.

Proximity: The village is long, however there are three lifts from the resort to the ski area, so access is generally easy. There are sometimes long queues at the Silvrettabahn during peak weeks.

To escape from the throng: Head to the nearby resorts of Galtür and Kappl, which are ideal for families and beginners, both offering 40km of cheap converse uk pistes. The Silvretta ski pass also covers these resorts and there is a bus service from Ischgl.

The X Factor: Ischgl has risen to prominence thanks to its blowout all singing, all dancing opening and closing week concerts, cheap converse trainers uk which in the past have attracted the likes of Katy Perry, Elton John, Rihanna and Kylie. Few resorts open in such exuberant style, but Ischgl certainly knows how to put on a party.

The resort is famed for its true Austrian-style, dancing-on-the-tables après ski, and the bars are packed to the rafters from 3pm until the small hours. Most people start their après ski in the bars at the bottom of the Silvrettabahn before moving on to the The Trofana Alm or the Sonne, where there's often live music.

The resort is also home to a Pacha nightclub – think Ibiza and London – which has music blaring every night of the season. Other late-night hangouts include the nightclub at the Hotel Post.

ACCOMMODATION:
The 4* Hotel Seiblishof, where a week's half board starts at €1055pp, has a great wellness centre and spacious rooms.

HOW TO GET THERE:
The easiest way to access Ischgl is to fly to Innsbruck, which is 85km away and a one-hour drive. Alternatively, you can fly to Munich, which is also within easy reach, approximately 210km and 2 hours, 30 minutes drive away, and is served by many international airlines.

“I don’t think gardening is for a rocket scientist,” says the 53-year-old retired social worker turned community gardener. “Make too much fuss [over] it and it will never happen. Gardening a part of nature and nature is not in a template — Just get you some space, get you some soil, get you some seeds, plant them, grow it and eat it.”

Although womens converse trainers outlet summer days are dwindling, it’s still possible to join up with a community garden and get in on the fall harvest. Organizations such as NeighborSpace and Connecting Chicago Community Gardens help obtain the necessary lots and tools for aspiring green thumbs all across the city. Each community garden has its own personality, and each one serves a different purpose in the city, drawing thousands of volunteers to plots around town.

LaManda Joy launched the Peterson Garden Project in 2010 to help calm the concerns of neighbors worried about food recalls and GMOs. “I grew up knowing how to grow my own food, so I thought if I taught people how to grow their own food then maybe people wouldn’t be so scared, because they could take a little bit of control into their own hands.”

Inspired by the WWII victory gardens that replaced the produce shipped overseas to the troops, Joy opened the first Peterson Garden at the intersection of Peterson and Campbell Avenues, which ended up becoming the largest edible organic garden in the city. Since then, the Peterson Garden Project teaches more than 2,650 gardeners how to properly grow their own produce, and Joy will expand that learning with cooking classes slated to start in September. “We find that a lot of people are interested in growing their own food but they don’t know what to do with it once they’ve got it, so we’re trying to close the loop on that.”

For Taylor, the benefits of a neighborhood garden have more to do with teaching discipline and life skills to the youth living in her neighborhood of Garfield Park. Since she turned the vacant lot next to her home into one of the neighborhood’s first community gardens in 2004, she’s seen the plot provide more than just fresh vegetables.

“Since the gardens have come up, a kind of negative traffic has moved itself around out of the space,” Taylor says. “The drug traffic has shifted.”

Photo by Paulina Coletta

Other benefits that come from converse jack purcell sale gardening aren’t as tangible, explains Gabriela Naveda, community greening associate with OpenLands, a land conservation group which helps maintain gardens throughout Illinois. Naveda says gardening also offers psychological benefits and physiological benefits by allowing growers to breathe the clean air produced by plants and to exert themselves in ways they haven’t before.

“There are a few areas in Chicago where there really aren’t any parks and they are really far away from the lakes and basically surrounded by cement,” Naveda says. “This is a great opportunity for them to be able to connect with a green open space. When you’re gardening, you’re pushing forth with a purpose outside of yourself and the physical work becomes more than just exercise it becomes part of something bigger.”

While the personal benefits are hard to quantify, Joy says she sees 82 percent of the Peterson Garden Project volunteers returning each year and educating the new gardeners. She says joining a community garden is as simple as researching of what type of gardening you would be interested in, filling out the volunteer paperwork and getting your hands dirty.

“Everyone has their own what I call ‘little victories’ of why they want to participate,” Joy says. “Be it from a social justice perspective or a neighborhood crime perspective or a neighborhood beautification perspective or whatever it is, these gardens really make a huge impact where they land.”

Photo by Paulina Coletta