Lens, Pas-de-Calais

French commune
nomcommune=Lens
View of Lens
région=Nord-Pas-de-Calais
département=Pas-de-Calais
("sous-préfecture")
arrondissement=Lens
canton= Chief town of 3 cantons
insee= 62498
cp= 62300
maire= Guy Delcourt
mandat= 2001-2008
intercomm=Communaupole
de Lens-Liévin
longitude=2.83333333333
latitude=50.4322222222
alt moy=
alt mini= 27 m
alt maxi= 71 m
hectares= 1,157
km²= 11.57
sans= 36,823
date-sans=1999
dens= 3,182
date-dens=1999

Lens is a "commune" in northern France, in the Pas-de-Calais "département". It is one of France's large "Picarde" cities along with Lille, Valenciennes, Amiens, Roubaix, Tourcoing, Arras, and Douai.

Metropolitan area

Lens belongs to the "communauté d'agglomération" of Lens-Liévin (Communaupole) which consists of 36 communes, with a total population of 250,000 inhabitants.Lens, along with Douai, forms the metropolitan area (in French: "aire urbaine") of Douai-Lens, whose population at the 1999 census was 552,682.

Economy

The city is an industrial and mining centre and has a long history of coal mining. Surrounding the town are many large slag heaps, evidence of over a hundred years of mining, which came to an end in the 1960s.

Miscellaneous

The city supports a top-level football team, Racing Club de Lens.

At Vimy, a small town very close to Lens, are the Vimy Memorial and Vimy Ridge.

From 2009, Lens will also be the location of the Louvre-Lens.

Famous Lensois

* Émile Basly, trade unionist then mayor of the city, died there in 1928
* Maurice Garin, first winner of Tour de France, died there in 1957

See also

* Stade Félix Bollaert

External links

* [http://www.ville-lens.fr/ Town council website] (in French)
* [http://www.agglo-lenslievin.fr/ Communauté d'Agglomeration of Lens-Liévin]