Valenciennes; Saturday, 27 June, 2026

I had a really good nights sleep, the first in almost a week thanks to the air-conditioning in the room, and after a quick shower headed down to breakfast before popping back up to my room, packing and walking the very short distance this weekend to Lille Flandres station to pick up the train to Valenciennes.

The journey was pretty smooth, and we arrived on time into the city. I had a couple of hours until check-in for the hotel opened so I had a long wander around the city, starting by heading over to the ruins of the Citadelle which sits at the western side of the city, close to the River Scheldt, though most of the site was dismantled in the 19th century, in part to make way for the railway line which cuts through the back of the site.

From the Citadelle I headed around the outskirts of the city centre going via the side roads that had shade as the temperatures were quite oppressive, with my next stop being the very pleasant Jardins De La Rhônelle which had lots of shade to spend some time just sitting and avoiding the worst of the heat.

At the edge of the gardens is about the only other remaining part of the city’s old fortifications, the Tour de Dodenne, a tower that straddles a small stream as it enters the heart of the historic city centre, but is sadly closed to the public as the building isn’t in a great condition, something I would find is quite common across the city with many buildings either in states of disrepair, actively falling down, or in a couple of cases, such as my next stop, undergoing extensive renovation.

From the Tour de Dodenne I walked up the nearby Boulevard Watteau to reach the Musée des Beaux-Arts which is currently under a lot of scaffolding and closed for many years for renovation. A short distance from here is the Basilique Notre-Dame-du-Saint-Cordon, also closed for renovations, though not much has happened other than legal battles on these for more than a decade whilst the building continues to gently decay away.

The Basilica was right by my hotel so I took a chance to see if it would be possible to check-in a little early, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that my room was ready so I was able to check-in, drop off my bag and freshen up before heading back out to explore more of the city, heading to the nearby Place d’Armes to see the Town Hall, the front façade is one of the few bits of the city to survive the bombings of World War II and shows how grand the city must have once looked. Nearby is the Église Saint-Géry de Valenciennes, which has been temporarily elevated to the main church whilst the Basilica is still closed and now houses the statue of Our Lady of the Holy Cord (Notre-Dame-du-Saint-Cordon).

I spent a bit more time wandering around the city before heading to a café in a square near the Église Saint-Géry de Valenciennes for a large water. I had been thinking about a beer, but due to the extreme temperatures the French government had temporarily banned the sale of alcohol between midday and 7am to prevent the hospitals becoming overloaded during the extraordinary temperatures most of the country had been suffering.

From the café I popped back to the hotel to freshen up and then headed out for a quick bite to eat and then back to the hotel for my included welcome drink which, because it was free and wasn’t being sold, could be beer.

I waited for the sun to set and then headed out for an evening wander around the city, keeping an eye out for the forecast thunderstorms that didn’t show any sign of appearing this weekend.