Nord-Pas-de-Calais in France
Nord-Pas-de-Calais is a French regionin the north of the country. The direct neighbor is Belgium. There are 4 million people in Nord-Pas-de-Calais that belongs to the region today of FrenchFlanders and Hainaut and Artois. Until 1678 these areas belonged to the Burgundian and Spanish Netherlands. The port areas of Boulogne and Calais were also part of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region.
When the program regions were established in France in 1960, the current boundaries of Nord-Pas-de-Calais were established. The powers of the regions were later expanded and as early as 1986 it was possible for the respective populations to elect their regional council by direct election.
The capital of the region is Lille. Other major cities include Arras, Calais, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Dunkirk, Cambrai, Douai and Valenciennes. With around 320 people per square kilometer, the area is the second most densely populated region in France. This is also due to the fact that there is a high birth rate here. Due to the numerous births, the population has the youngest average age in the entire country. However, the high unemployment rate means that the younger generation is moving to other regions where there is more work. Especially university graduates and highly qualified people leave Nord-Pas-de-Calais.
Economy and life in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais
The area of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region was an economically safe location until the war. The population was doing well. She seldom lived in prosperity, but neither was she poor. Everyone had their livelihood. Then World War II came and destroyed some important facilities. After the end of the war, there was not much left of the once flourishing location. The entire region got into difficult economic times. Until the war, the people here had from the metal, coal and textile industries lived. During the war, many companies went bankrupt, only a few textile companies survived. The important industries in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region dwindled over time. Today only a few of the once numerous textile companies still exist.
The TGV and the Eurotunnel brought work back to the region for a short time. However, compared to the other regions of France, unemployment is still well above the average. The situation has started to improve somewhat since 2001, as some of the French companies have relocated their headquarters to Nord-Pas-de-Calais. Thus one finds today among others, the Company Auchan, Decathlon, La Redoute, 3 Suisses (who also runs a fashion mail order business in Germany), Bonduelle, Arc International and Rouquette Freres.
Although these companies provide jobs, the number of unemployed far exceeds the number of jobs available.
Cultural in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region
Many people have heard from the film Welcome to the Sch’tis heard or even seen it. The film was released in 2008 and is about the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region and the people who live there. The post office clerk Philippe Abrams is transferred to Nord-Pas-de-Calais. Due to the prevailing dialect there, he can barely understand the residents, which is a barely surmountable obstacle for him. The dialect spoken in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region is often referred to as the Ch’ti dialect, hence the name of the film.
Lille in France
The French city of Lille was formerly called Rysell in German and Rijsel in Dutch. Lille is inNorthern Franceand is the capital of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of the Nord department.
Over 1.1 million people live here. The metropolis Lille is the third largest in France after Paris and Lyon and the most densely populated city in France. It also has the largest number of students in all of France. Up to 110,000 students study at the Universite Lille Nord France.
The history of Lille
The city got its name from the fact that the island on which the city was located lay in a river. The derivation of Lille comes from the name L’ile, which means the island. The other types of names, such as Rijel, come from the Dutch name Ter ijsel, which means to island.
The first documentary mention comes from the year 1054. The local legend about Lyderic and the giant Phinaert date the foundation to the year 640. But there is no evidence of this.
The French King Philip II. August decided the battle at the gates of Lilles between the Hohenstaufen and the Capetians in 1214. So Lille continued to belong to the county of Flanders. This was one of the richest regions in Europe due to the textile industry and the related trade and commerce. In 1235, Countess Johanna von Flanders made a great contribution to the city of Lille, because she issued a charter so that the mayor could be appointed by the sovereign. In 1236 she founded the hospice, which still bears her name today.
In 1304 the tide turned and Lille fell under the direct administration of France and finally to the house in 1384 Burgundy. The Burgundians made Lille one of their three residential cities. The Burgundians ruled the area until 1477. Then this line became extinct and Lille fell under the rule of the Habsburgs. From 1555 onwards, Lille was part of the Spanish Netherlands.
The first Calvinist Protestants lived in Lille from 1542, but the Spaniards took brutal and violent action against this group. The first murders occurred in 1560. It was not until the peace treaty of Aachen in 1668 that France was recognized.
Another battle for Lille followed during the Wars of the Spanish Succession. In 1708 they made it Alliance troops conquer the city and captured it. Nevertheless, France was allowed to keep Lille as a city and region in the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.
Economy and life in Lille
Lille has always been a prosperous city and although the war years were devastating for Lille, the metropolis always recovered rapidly afterwards. So was the industrialization in the early 19th century for Lille a further economic boost. The city gained power and the textile industry, which has always been located here, blossomed again.
There is also a lot on offer here culturally. There are numerous museums of international importance. Among other things, here is the Charles de Gaulle, the Mussee d’Arts Populaires de Lille-Sud, Muesse de l’Hospice Comtesse and the Musee Industrial et d’Ethnologie.
There are more than 8,000 companies in Lille, most of them in the service sector. Then comes trade and the bottom line of the major economic sectors is industry. Most companies have fewer than 10 employees, making up 90 percent of the companies in Lille. In the wider urban area of Lille there are a few car manufacturers’ plants, one of which is Toyota.