NORD-PAS-DE-CALAIS - Geography and history
The relatively small Nord-Pas-de-Calais region (12 452 km2), covering 2.3% of the territory of metropolitan France, forms a buffer zone between northern Europe and the Paris basin.
It has two geological areas; the 'Haut Pays', running from the foothills of the Ardennes (250 m) to the Boulonnais via the Crete de l'Artois, and the 'Bas Pays', the beginning of the great northern plain.
In the south, the geological substratum is mainly chalk; the northern plain is composed of sand and clay. Almost the entire surface of the region is covered with silt.
The rather rainy climate is influenced by the ocean in both the west and north. Eastward from inland Flanders, it has a continental character that becomes more and more pronounced. The average temperature in Lille is 10°C.
The network of watercourses is of average size; its orientation is opposite to that of the Paris Basin. 69% of the territory is agricultural land. With only 8% of the land covered by forests, the region is the least wooded of all the regions in France.
Like its geography, its history connects it with northern Europe. Derived from the province of Artois and from half of the provinces of Flanders and Hainaut (the other half being in Belgium), the region became French only after the time of Louis XIV (end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth century).
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