Taxi Lille → Saint-Quentin

Saint-Quentin is a city of art and history that surprises visitors with the richness of its architectural heritage. Devastated during the First World War, the city was entirely rebuilt in the 1920s and 1930s in a remarkable Art Deco style that makes it today one of France's finest collections of this movement, alongside Reims and Le Havre. The Place de l'Hôtel-de-Ville, lined with polychrome Art Deco façades featuring floral and geometric motifs, is the vibrant heart of the city. The Town Hall itself, with its 15th-century Flamboyant Gothic façade and 37-bell carillon, is a listed historic monument. The Basilica of Saint-Quentin, an imposing 13th-century Gothic edifice, rivals many cathedrals in its dimensions and luminosity. The Antoine Lécuyer Museum houses the world's largest collection of pastel portraits by Maurice Quentin de La Tour, born in Saint-Quentin, official portraitist to Louis XV. These extraordinarily fine pastels — portraits of Voltaire, Rousseau, Madame de Pompadour — constitute a first-rate artistic treasure. Saint-Quentin is also a city of nature thanks to the Marais d'Isle, a nature reserve in the very heart of the city, and the Canal de Saint-Quentin linking the Scheldt to the Oise.