Visit Valenciennes and its surroundings during your stay at the Royal Hainaut Hotel

Setting out from the Royal Hainaut, discover in 8 delightful stages, Valenciennes’ centres of interest and architecture.

This escape game in the heart of Valenciennes will thrill explorers from every walk of life. Embark on an extraordinary adventure.  

Here you can take part in open air, mainly water-based activities, and enjoy the beauty of nature just a stone’s throw away from the city centre.  

Located in Belgium, this park was voted Europe’s best zoo in 2020. Travel through different worlds discovering their landscapes, fauna and flora. The perfect day-out for families in search of a bit of fun and excitement. 

Just five minutes away from the Royal Hainaut Spa & Resort Hotel, this national stage is a European Creative Hub. Created in 1998, it offers theatre, dance and music. As a venue for contemporary artistic creation, Le Phénix is renowned for its vitality and the quality of its productions. 

In the characteristic decor of the Fine Arts Museums of the third French Republic, the Museum of Fine Arts offers its visitors the opportunity to discover archaeological remains, early 20th century masterpieces painted by Rubens and Jordaens, as well as sculptures dating back to the 19th century.

The Valenciennes Museum of Fine Arts is currently closed for renovation. 

Discover Valenciennes’ old town: dotted around the Basilique Saint-Cordon are 9 stop-off points in Valenciennes’ old town, allowing you to discover its remarkable and quite unique buildings with audio support.  

At 40 minutes away from the Royal Hainaut Spa & Resort Hotel, housed in Théophile and Jean-Baptiste Carpentier’s 19th century former lace factory, Caudry’s Lace Museum is an invitation to explore Caudry’s wealth of lace and textile arts. Past and contemporary creations come together under one roof.  

At 45 minutes away from the hotel, the Matisse Le Cateau-Cambresis Museum was created by the artist himself while he was still alive. Over the years, its collections have grown and today, visitors can admire works by Picasso, Chagall, Miró, Fernand Léger, Giacometti, etc.  

Located at 40 minutes away from the Royal Hainaut Spa & Resort Hotel, La Piscine Museum of Art and Industry André Diligent is housed in the building of Roubaix’s former Art Deco swimming pool. The old pool and its 1930s’ changing rooms have become the unusual setting for permanent collections, areas devoted to the town’s history, sculpture, etc.  

Designed by architect Robert Mallet-Stevens, this superb villa from the 1930s was entirely renovated in 2015. Situated at just 40 minutes from the Royal Hainaut Spa & Hotel, it is an invitation to delve into the ultra contemporary mindset of that era.  

Before even entering Le Louvre Museum in Lens, you’ll be transfixed by the building’s clean, contemporary lines. Inside, prepare to embark on a wonderful journey in the Galerie du Temps (Gallery of Time) presenting 500 years of history across several hundred masterpieces loaned by Paris’ Louvre and Quai Branly/Jacques Chirac museums. 

As the very first regional park created in France, the Scarpe-Escaut Regional Nature Park is made up of some 55 districts within the Nord region, all of which are committed to protecting the environment. It forms a wonderful natural area to explore all year round, and features some important landmarks including some protected slag heaps that have been converted into recreational activities. The region’s industrial mining heritage can also be visited on bike or on walking tours.  

At 30 minutes away from the Royal Hainaut Spa & Resort Hotel, set off to explore the region’s largest forest! See if you can spot some deer at the bend in a walking trail. 

Boasting 125,000 hectares of forest to explore by bike, meadows criss-crossed by rivers with windmills perched on their banks, picturesque villages, orchards and an eco-museum... The Avesnois Regional Nature Park conceals an array of treasures for you to discover over the course of a weekend or while on holiday with friends or family.  

Explore Flanders and its four “Monts” at just 55 minutes away from the Royal Hainaut Spa & Resort Hotel, including Mont des Cats, Mont Cassel the highest, Mont Kemmel and Mont-Noir.  

Circuit created by Valenciennes Tourisme & Congrès. A 6.1km tourist trail with a stop at the Royal Hainaut.

Discover the under-water world through scuba diving or free diving, with a qualified instructor at the Nungesser Aquatic Centre, renowned for its 20-metre-deep semi-buried diving pool!  

Experience La Boucle Un’Escaut, a wonderful cycling adventure over 33km. 19m in altitude change. Level: easy. 2hr30. 

Discover the region from up above with Valenciennes airport. Here you can take part in initiation or first flights as well as parachute jumps in solo or tandem, for guaranteed thrills. 

Fly over the region of Valenciennes in a hot-air balloon! At some time or other, we’ve all fantasised about being Jules Vernes aboard one of his flying machines. Well, fantasise no more. Make your dreams come true with this flight over the Scarpe-Escaut Regional Nature Park.  

Designed by Jean-Claude Cornillot, the Mormal Golf Course transports you to a hilly landscape meandering between hedgerows, orchards and ponds and close to the Forest of Mormal. Covering 6022 metres by 72 metres, the course is suitable for all levels of players. 

Opened in 2008, the Mérignies Golf Course is nicknamed “the most hilly golf course of the flat country” and extends over 185 hectares of natural beauty close to Valenciennes. With its three nine-hole courses created by Michel Gayon, a designer famous for having created more than 50 golf courses in France and abroad, the Mérignies Golf Course is a technical yet enjoyable challenge that will test the skills of both beginners and experienced golfers.

The slag heap of the Bleuse Borne in Anzin (10min), Arenberg Mining Site (20min), the Chevalement Ledoux mine head frame in Condé-sur-l’Escaut (20min), etc. All these places will have you walking in the footsteps of the “Black Faces”.  

Travel back in time to understand the past of a region that marked the industrial history of both France and Europe. You’ll discover landscapes shaped by man since the 19th century and industrial sites that will impress through their sheer size, while conjuring up the lives of the miners, known back then as the “Black Faces”.  

Discover the fortified city of Condé-sur-l’Escaut, the archaeological site of Bavay and the Ramparts of Quesnoy, all within a 30-minute perimeter away from the Royal Hainaut Spa & Resort Hotel. 

Retrace mining history on this walking trail through the forest.