Things to discover in France

Tucked away in the northern French town of Croix stands a bold statement in brick, steel, and marble: Villa Cavrois. This striking modernist mansion, completed in 1932, was the brainchild of famed architect Robert Mallet-Stevens.

Anyone following the winding footpath through this protected nature reserve unwittingly steps into a fascinating, but forgotten chapter of industrialisation.

The northern French town of Valenciennes had more in store than steel and coal. The glass industry also had its heyday there.

At the end of the 19th century, the Cotonnière du Touquet settled in the northern French textile town of Tourcoing.

A century ago, in 1925, the Guenot & Duprez cotton mill appeared on the scene in the French textile town of Tourcoing.

The iron headframe was preserved on the site where the French Compagnie des Mines de Liévin laid its first coal mine in 1858.

The fortified town of Bitche is dominated by a citadel stretching out over a sandstone rock. 

L'ouvrage du Four-à-Chaux was one of the gros ouvrages or large artillery works of the French Maginot Line. Yet almost nothing of it can be seen above ground.

In 1874, a cross-border railway connected the Belgian town of Péruwelz with the French municipality of Anzin. The aim was to export coal from the northern French mining basin to Belgium.

One of the most exceptional mining complexes in French Alsace, where potassium or potash was brought to the surface, is the Carreau Rodolphe.