Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France

Saint-Martin-sur-Écaillon in Nord-Pas-de-Calais
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St_Martin_sur_ecaillon.JPG
Author: Pichasso


Nord-Pas-de-Calais is the northernmost region of metropolitan France. It covers 12,414 sq km (4,793.1 sq mi) and has a population of 4 million people. It is composed of two departments namely Nord and Pas-de-Calais. These are places which once belonged to southern Netherlands and were gradually absorbed into France between 1477 and 1678.

Nord-Pas-de-Calais is in the Central European Time Zone, which is an hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC+1), and two hours ahead during Daylight Saving Time in summer. It was created out of the historical provinces of Artois, Boulonnais, Calaisis, Cambraisis, French Flanders, French Hainaut and portions of northern Picardy.

Church of Neuville-en-Avesnois
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Neuville_en_avesnois_church.jpg
Author: Hektor


The administrative center and largest city in Nord-Pas-de-Calais is the city of Lille. The namesake city of Calais is the second largest in the region. Due to the proximity with Great Britain, on clear days you can actually see the White Cliffs of Dover from Calais in France.

The Nord-Pas-de-Calais region was heavily industrialized in the 19th century, with coal mines, steel mills and textile factories. These industries went into decline in the early 20th century, causing the region to lose jobs which was only reversed with investments pouring in from the government and the European Union. The choice of Lille as the terminus of the Channel Tunnel was considerably boosted tourism in the region. The port towns of Calais, Dunkirk and Boulogne have also benefited from the ferry services linking them to cities in neighboring countries.

Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Saint-Omer, Nord-Pas de Calais
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cath%C3%A9drale_Notre-Dame_de_Saint-Omer5.JPG
Author: Welleschik

Visiting Nord-Pas-de-Calais

You can reach Lille by train from Paris, Brussels and London, and from Lille, continue to other towns in the region.

Cities and communes in Nord-Pas-de-Calais

 Latest updates on Penang Travel Tips

About this website

Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.

While I try my best to provide you information as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors and for outdated information which I am unaware. Nevertheless, I hope that what I have described here will be useful to you.