Roubaix is probably best known as the finish of one of cycling’s oldest and toughest road races, nicknamed ‘L’Enfer du Nord’ (The Hell of the North).
Famed for a series of vicious cobblestone sections along its 260km route, the Paris-Roubaix classic attracts thousands of Belgian fans every year. However, few cheering on their heroes in the closing stages tend to stick around.
That’s a pity because the French Flanders border town, easily reachable by road from Brussels and only 22 minutes from Lille Europe rail station by metro, has much to offer to visitors.
For starters, it boasts some stellar buildings dating from Roubaix’s golden era as a European textile industry capital between the late 19th and mid-20th century.
The palatial town hall, constructed between 1907-11, is a listed national monument and the School of Textile Arts and Industries (École nationale supérieure des arts et industries textiles, ENSAIT), dating from 1899, is on a similarly grand scale.
Another highlight, a short distance away, is La Piscine, a stunning art museum housed in a former municipal swimming pool – and the focus of a recent visit by The Brussels Times.
The building was commissioned in 1922 by the town’s mayor, future government minister and war hero Jean Lebas, who tasked architect Albert Baert with building “the most beautiful swimming pool in France”.
Illustration picture shows the Musée de la Piscine in Roubaix, France, Thursday 03 February 2022. Credit: Belga
Opened a decade later, the result was an art deco gem, flooded with light from gorgeous stained-glass windows symbolising the rising and setting sun.
Expensive to maintain and falling into disrepair, the pool was forced to close in 1985 and was later transformed into a museum by heritage architect Jean-Paul Philippon. He cleverly retained part of the 50-metre Olympic-length pool, which is now lined with sculptures and statues, as well as its original tiled changing-room cabins, which are used as display spaces.
Opened to the public in 2001, the building has since been extended to accommodate its burgeoning acquisitions.
Frisking
Much of its permanent collection dates from the late 19th century and features works by Camille Claudel, Auguste Rodin, Henri Fantin-Latour and a large selection by Belgium-born Rémy Cogghe, a favourite of mine.
His canvases include the controversial Combat de coqs en Flandre, Madame reçoit, depicting two servants surreptitiously listening at the door of their mistress – very Downton Abbey – and Fouille en douane, which shows a border guard frisking a woman who is impressively impassive despite the indignity she faces.
My visit, however, centres on the latest round of temporary exhibitions – more of which in a moment – that the museum hopes will draw significant numbers of both new and returning visitors.
Madame Recoit painting by Belgian painter Rémy Cogghe
Director and Curator Hélène Duret aims in particular to encourage more Belgians through the doors. Visitors are asked to declare their nationality when buying their tickets: in 2024 some 21,176 out of the museum’s near 287,000 visitors were Belgian.
While that works out at only 7% of total admissions, Duret is quick to point out that Belgians account for nearly 45% of the museum’s non-French visitors.
“The Belgian public is La Piscine's primary international audience and a very important one for us,” she says. “We truly value our Belgian visitors and neighbours, who play a central role in our communications and programming.
A Belgian season is currently under consideration to highlight this special connection we share.
“Belgian artists are very present in our collection, with approximately 60 represented in all. They include several of our iconic artists such as Rémy Cogghe, Jean-Joseph Weerts and Eugène Dodeigne, as well as Constantin Meunier, Jef Lambeaux and Joseph Witterwulghe.”
agnès b.
But back to new exhibitions: the centrepiece, entitled ‘agnès b. on aime le graff!!’, is a celebration of the renowned fashion designer and her passion for urban art.
Now 83, the former Agnès Troublé – the ‘b.’ comes from the surname of her ex-hubby Christian Bourgois – has collaborated for decades with graffiti artists, whose influence is evident in her upscale clothing lines as well as the costumes she created for the likes of David Bowie and Yoko Ono.
The exhibition features a roomful of her colourful dresses and outfits, as well as a wall of signature T-shirts, with a handwritten message from the designer explaining that they constitute “a formidable vehicle for an artwork, a point of view or a gag to say who you are”.
Left: agnès b. Mambo Blouson Agla, 2025. Right: More agnès b. dresses. Credit: Adagp, Paris, 2025.
Elsewhere, agnès b. writes: “Graffiti is not pollution. On the contrary, it is a rich art. Something that beautifies life, that beautifies the city.”
The displays are edgy, glitzy and sassy. You can even buy a highly desirable, souvenir agnès b. T-shirt in the museum shop. But at over €100 each – oof! – your scribe was just about able to resist the temptation, telling himself ‘I’m too Sexy for My Shirt’ or something of the sort. The agnès b. show runs until 11 January 2026.
A linked exhibition called ‘Vêtements bavards’ (Talkative Clothes). mounted in the former changing-room cabins, features a dazzling shirt created by Belgian designer Souâd Feriani, adorned with swirls and motifs by the late Algerian-born French artist Mahjoub Ben Bella. The museum states that the idea behind this display is to “decorate, define, suggest and proclaim”.
Ben Bella, who passed away in 2020, was based in nearby Tourcoing and is best known for painting a 12km ribbon of cobblestones on the Paris-Roubaix road race course. He was also a fine ceramist and the museum has a new section devoted to his beautifully decorated plates and other objects, featuring delightful patterns characterised by his free-flowing calligraphic style with echoes of Mediterranean influences. The ‘Vêtements bavards’ exhibition runs until 28 September.
'Ensemble Tarot' by Elisabeth de Senneville, 2025, part of the ‘Vêtements bavards’ exhibition, which runs until 28 September. Credit: Adagp, Paris
Two other new spaces, designed to be permanent additions to the museum’s collection, recall the artist movement known as the ‘Group de Roubaix’ which emerged in the years following the Second World War, and, in a nod to its own past history, ‘Les Baigneurs de La Piscine’ (The bathers of the pool).
A highlight of the former is one of the final oil canvases created by abstract expressionist Eugène Leroy. Simply called Figure, it has an eye-catching 3-D effect thanks to the artist’s thickly applied daubs and layers of autumnal-coloured paints.
‘Les Baigneurs’ features acquatic-related paintings and artefacts which illustrate the evolving story of public baths. Originally built to promote personal hygiene, the pools developed into a venue for leisure and sport – while swimmers’ attire adapted to this change by gradually becoming more revealing.
'Les Chasseurs' by Susanne Hay, on show at La Piscine.
The displays include a striking image by German artist Susanne Hay of a male swimmer relaxing poolside in his speedos as well as a set of photographs of Roubaisiens enjoying La Piscine in its heyday.
Our guide singles out a black and white shot featuring three youths gazing towards an unseen object of interest, amusingly describing them as “Les chasseurs (the hunters)”.
Admission to La Piscine including the temporary exhibitions is €11. The museum also offers discounted combination tickets to La Manufacture des Flandres, a Roubaix museum dedicated to textile design (€13.50), and the Villa Cavrois, a masterpiece of Brutalist architecture in nearby Croix (€19.50). Entry to La Piscine is free on the first Sunday of the month and every Friday from 18:00-20:00.
