'Un jour'... in the Hauts de France, discovering its heart of heritage

It feels like reaching the ends of the Earth after an arduous journey... More alive than ever before, in this fairy-tale place born of the shifting tides. This encounter with powerful, ever-changing nature, resonates with the beauty and sensuality of the sand dunes.

Whisky and jenever fill the air as the stills chug away. In Wambrechie, the distillery has been humming away for more than 200 years, and the spirits come with their own symphony. A listed historic monument, the distillery is a shining example of late 19th century industrial architecture.

This is a place where once crossed paths wealth captains of industry and their workers... in their bathing suits. Today, works of art gather around the glassy pool to tell their tale in this progressive museum. In their diversity of genres and styles, they evoke the defining spirit of Roubaix swimming pool in the 1930s.

What can possibly be found at the top of a slagheap? Perhaps views of a world on its head? Or the chance to embrace the subterranean world of the mines? Atop the carboniferous sandstone and schist, nature defies the laws of gravity to turn these sooty black mountains greener every year.

Machinery grinds, clinks, rolls and thumps. Enter the Jean Bracq workshop with a pounding heart, and leave with a body entranced. Since 1889, 40 leavers have been weaving the contours of the highest quality lace to their repetitive, frenetic beat.

The museum emerges from twin slag heaps, resplendent in glass and aluminium, standing out or blending in depending on the weather. Just like the art collections it exhibits, it is a metaphor for a journey through space and time.

Light brazenly rushes in and highlights the spaces of this modern chateau with their radical geometry, designed by the architect Robert Mallet Stevens for the industrialist Paul Cavrois, in 1932. Come nightfall, the warm bricks vanish and the tawny owls strike up their serenade.