Lens (Pas-de-Calais)
Lens (population 36,800) is city in northern France, in the Pas-de-Calais département.
It belongs to the agglomeration of Lens-Liévin which gathers 36 cities or villages, that is to say 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.
The city is an industrial and mining centre and has a long history of coal mining. Surrounding the town are many large slag heaps.
Very close from there, the Vimy Memorial, is at Vimy Ridge.
History
Famous Lensois
