La Piscine - Musée d'art et d'industrie André Diligent de Roubaix

Wonderful place , not to miss , hop on metro from Lille to Roubaix ,few (12 )stops ride to be here . Easy 5-7 min walk from Roubaix station, well marked directions do was easy to find. Impressive museum where 1927 pool is converted into museum. It is really spectacular for its art collection of sculptures, paintings but also the nostalgic building of swimming pool with old structure being retained. It has a nice cafe too. Must visit if you are in Lille .

An incredible place! The iconic early 20th-century architecture, along with a wonderful collection of modern and contemporary art, makes it truly special. There’s also a lovely restaurant. We discovered this museum by chance while passing through, and it turned out to be such a pleasant and unexpected find. I was so impressed and inspired by this museum that I would gladly come back here again on purpose.

Amazing museum mainly due to the space itself.... and old swimming pool. All history about it is available at the entrance of the museum. Nice restaurant inside. You can learn about the local textile industry. Some of the art pieces are great.

Surprisingly this is one of the best museums I have ever visited. An exceptionally curated collection of art that keeps you seriously engaged during your visit. The set up to repurpose the public swimming pool, the architecture and inner gardens bring the whole experience to another level. A Must visit when in Lille.

It is important to look at art, to remind us of the precious moments, or moments or ideas that moved someone else, or to marvel at the barely-comprehensible potential of human skill. There are some absolutely incredible, mind-blowingly impressive perfect works of art at this museum which will restore unto you the will to live or unlock new previously unimaginable avenues of thought. Do go.

La Piscine is one of the best museums I’ve ever visited! It is truly stunning, unique and peaceful. You can admire beautiful architecture from the old swimming pool while enjoying the art at the same time.

Highly recommend visiting this place. We had a nice lunch at Meert before, which is in the same building and walked around the museum. It is both typical museum and a converted pool house with an exhibit space.

It’s A MUST if you’re visiting Lille. Definitely one of the best museums I’ve ever visited. Beautiful old swimming pool + arts, what’s not to love? Also it’s got Meert cafe inside!

This place is magnificent! Came here for the Week-End Familial for L'exposition of Degas Sculpteur. Throughout my years of Art History, none of my professors elaborated on the controversy revolving Edgar Degas' work. I have seen Degas work many times and his most notable sculpteur La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans lives at at Musée D'Orsay, which I have seen there and now here. I didn't know ballerinas back then were considered lower class, since the girl's family would push them to do ballet in hopes to catch an eye of the wealthy. It's almost a form of pedophile...actually it is! Degas also made this ballerina have a face of criminals. So a lot of people weren't fans of him. Moving on out of Degas, this Musée isn't magnificent because of Degas pieces...it's breathtaking because the Philanthropist kept the look and feel of La Piscine. The swimming pool was constructed between 1927 and 1932 by the Lille architect Albert Baert. It closed as a swimming pool in 1985, and was remodelled as a museum by the architect Jean-Paul Philippon, opening in 2000. A modern entrance building, special exhibition space and garden were constructed within the roof-less shell of an adjoining textile factory. The museum's permanent collection has its origins in 1835, when a collection of fabric samples from the many local textile factories was started. By 1898 the collection was housed in the National High School of Arts and Textile Industry (ENSAIT), and was seen as a way of cultivating the tastes of the town's workers, foremen and manufacturers. To this end the collection combined elements of literature, fine-arts, science and industrial products. The ENSAIT museum closed with the onset of World War II, and never reopened. From 1899 the collections were displayed in Roubaix's town hall, in preparation for the opening of La Piscine in 2000. L thought I would enjoy this Musée more, since I am not really into Modern Art and since I have a background in Textile...this would be the better choice. They have art hanging on the ceilings and original shower stalls within, beautiful garden and also they have Meert here.

Very nice atmosphere for this special museum. It has been built into the old swimming pool of Roubaix and kept plenty of accessories from this old time. You can admire sculptures and paintings there gathered by genre. You have a restaurant inside, an auditorium and a fabric room you can rent for your meetings.

This museum in a former swimming pool is as interesting for its building as for the art: features including signage and the shower cubicles have been cleverly incorporated into the displays. The pool of water in the central hall both evokes the swimming bath originally there and provides a dramatic setting for the sculpture along its sides. The permanent collection includes not only art but also the history of the town of Roubaix and, most interestingly, samples of the textiles formerly produced there. If the Nord's silks are your passion, there is a library where you can explore further. Temporary exhibitions are also held: when I visited, there was an amazingly colourful 'garden' of clothing designs by Agatha Ruiz de la Prada. There is a cafe/restaurant run by Meert but very different in style to the town centre patisserie, and a shop which has a range of books as well as some interesting arts and crafts. For its unusual setting and varied collections, La Piscine is well worth a visit. Don't be put off by the location: you can quickly and easily get here by metro from central Lille, and it's then just a short walk down the main street.

We were refused admission because we had bags (just small back packs). They were not allowed in the museum and there was no cloakroom where they could be left. None of the staff even pretended the mildest regret or concern.

Quite an alternative museum - La Piscine is really what is reads (to those of you who had French lessons at one point in their life), it is literally a swimming pool, or should I say, was. On par with the hospital conversion into an art gallery, Roubaix have converted a swimming pool along with its shower areas all into one large art museum. The entire exhibition is not small, the building has two floors and also incorporates a restaurant along with another special exhibits section. Some of the art on display relates back to the local textile industry of Roubaix, which is rather different from what one would expect from your standard museum in Europe. There are also large oil based paintings on display, along with the odd sculpture. On the day I visited, there was a large contingent of art students sketching all the items too. A little walk from central Roubaix (but not too difficult with a map) - it is actually closer to the train station than the tram station (I took the tram from Lille).

after Musée Rodin, La Piscine is my next most favorite museum ever. i love the way they preserved artifacts and the history of the building. This museum is just a must-see and i'm quite happy that Roubaix has something notable to sustain it.