In 2024, Artois is celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Chaîne des Parcs!
This January 25 at the Louvre-Lens, as part of the Grand Forum organized by the Pôle Métropolitain de
Artois, nearly 120 local stakeholders – elected officials, the economic, academic and associative world –
together drew up an assessment of the impact of the Chaîne des Parcs, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary in
2024, in the presence of the designer of this major project, the landscaper Michel Desvigne, and
by urban planner Jean-Louis Subileau. Welcomed by Annabelle Ténèze, new director of
Louvre-Lens, this Grand Forum had as guest of honor Wim Dries, Mayor of Genk,
Belgian territory inspiring the transformation of the Pas-de-Calais mining basin. At the heart of
exchanges: the “ecotransition accelerator” effect of the territory driven by the Chaîne des
parks, pivot of changes in Artois: mobility, new economic momentum, evolution of
living environment, attractiveness, culture, major events... “Playing field” for the 2024 Olympics, the
Chaîne des Parcs asserts itself as a solution for the future to support the energy transition
and climate change.
HISTORICAL FOCUS
In 2014, one of the greatest landscapers - Michel Desvigne - presented the first master plan in front of
the General Assembly of the Euralens association. The project is crazy: bringing the Pas-de-Calais mining basin
from black to green, by developing 4 hectares of landscaped nature, connecting 200 towns. Today, this
dream has come true: the Chain of parks, the new backbone of the territory, emblem of its resilience,
has become the pivot of its transformation, in all its facets: mobility, industry, living environment,
attractiveness, ecotransition, culture, adaptation to climate change (water management, islands of freshness) and
energy transition (production of green energy through biomass and ground-based photovoltaics)... It is part of the Pole
Metropolitan Artois, an innovative, singular territory, unique in Europe!
