Using the sensitive XMM-Newton observatory, we have observed the giant HII region N11 in the LMC for sim30 ks. We have detected several large areas of soft diffuse X-ray emission along with 37 point sources. One of the most interesting results is the possible association of a faint X-ray source with BSDL 188, a small extended object of uncertain nature. The OB associations in the field-of-view (LH9, LH10 and LH13) are all detected with XMM-Newton, but they appear very different from one another. [...] (for complete abstract, see paper) Finally, our XMM-Newton observation included simultaneous observations with the OM camera that provide us with unique UV photometry of more than 6000 sources and enable the discovery of the UV emission from the SNR N11L.