Every design for Roubaix

Did you grow up hearing Roubaix called the town of a thousand chimneys? Few places in France were shaped so completely by one trade. In the nineteenth century its textile mills turned a small commune into one of the world's textile capitals, and people nicknamed it the French Manchester. When the industry declined, the town kept its brick, its close-knit streets and its stubborn pride.

That pride is the feeling people from Roubaix carry with them: a working town that looked after its own, pioneering in social matters and rich in local associations. The great French mail-order houses were founded here, and the town lends its name to the famous Paris-Roubaix race. The old industrial fabric has found new lives, too. The Archives Nationales du Monde du Travail keep the memory of labour, La Condition Publique, Maison Folie hosts culture, and La Piscine is the museum every local names first.

On a quiet afternoon in the Parc Barbieux, with the canal de Roubaix cutting across the north of town, it is easy to see why so many still call Roubaix home.