Museum of Fine Arts (Musee des Beaux-Arts), Tournai

Advantages: Hundreds of famous works of art.
Disadvantages: Sensory overload.

...If you enjoy visiting art museums, Paris really is the place to go to. In the last 20 years or so, Paris museums re-organised their collections and the musée d'Orsay became the receptacle for art dated between 1848 and 1914. ~The Gare d'Orsay~ ********************** The building that houses the collection used to be a train station and hotel, which due to its proximity to the Louvre needed to be built sympathetically. Its inauguration in 1900 revealed a very fine building where the stone façade hid the metal structure inside. At the time, the painter Edouard Detaille wrote ""The station is superb and looks like a Palais des beaux-arts...". Little did he know that he was writing a prophesy… After 1939, the progressive electrification of the railroads meant that the platforms were now too short to accommodate the new, longer... Read review

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Advantages: Centre small enough to get around on foot, pretty
Disadvantages: What disadvantages??!!

...I spent a year in Dijon during my university year abroad and despite my distinct homesickness and sheer glee to get out of the place once July 2003 came around, this shouldn't reflect badly on the beautiful city itself. First things first for a tourist; there are an abundance of really nice, cosy yet resonable hotels/ guesthouses. There a few grotty ones too, particulary on Avenue Maréchal Foch, but a really nice hotel can be found on a quiet Dijon back street. Can't remember the name of the hotel, but it's on Rue Verrerie, parallel with Rue de la Préfecture (where I used to live!!). Ok, sightseeing wise, there is a lot to see. If you are ok with heights, you must go to the top of La Tour Philippe Le Bon, in the middle of the fine arts museum grounds (Musée des Beaux arts), on the main road through, Rue de la Liberté. It's high... Read review

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Advantages: Good food, good wine ,friendly people and great country.
Disadvantages: Lack of french

...-Gatien with its flamboyant Gothic façade is an imposing piece of architecture both by day and by night. Musee des Beaux-arts is a fine provincial museum in the Palais des Archeveques and is worth a visit to view its rooms and gardens alone but there are also works by Rembrandt, Degas and Houdon to be savoured. A visit to the Tourist Office opposite the spectacular railway station will give you all the information you need. Tours benefits from a number of parks which offer a tranquil retreat. The vast Jardin des Prebendes, with its lake, is only a stones throw from the city's historical centre and offers an ideal place to shade from the hot summer sun. Modern Tours offers many opportunities for shopping or just browsing with pedestrian areas full of small boutiques and large department stores to tempt you. In the area near the railway station... Read review

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