Nord

The industrial north of France and the Franco-Belgian border country, fought over more often than anywhere else in western Europe. The region around Lille, Flanders, Artois and Hainaut was culturally and linguistically part of the Low Countries for centuries - Flemish is still spoken in villages near the border - and passed between Burgundian, Habsburg, Spanish and French rule before Louis XIV secured it in the seventeenth century. Its cloth towns were among the wealthiest in medieval Europe. Coal found in the nineteenth century made it France's industrial heartland, with mining, textiles and steel drawing Polish, Italian and later North African labour, and producing a strong socialist and communist political tradition. Geography made it a battlefield: it was occupied in 1870, held by Germany for the whole of the First World War, and the Western Front ran through it. The mining basin is a World Heritage site listed for its slag heaps and workers' housing. The last pit closed in 1990 and the region has among the highest unemployment in France. Its belfries and carnival traditions are Flemish in origin. Beer and frites belong here rather than to the south. The region has around six million people and is the most densely populated in France outside Paris. Lille is its largest city and sits closer to Brussels than to Paris. Its giants processions are recognised by Unesco. The Braderie de Lille is among Europe's largest street markets. Dunkirk's evacuation in 1940 took place on its coast. Roubaix and Tourcoing were among the largest textile towns in Europe.

• Existed: 1150 CE – present
• Type: Entity