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NORD-Pas-de-Calais

Flandre

Flanders is a former province of France, situated in the northern part of the country just south of the Belgian border and along the North Sea coast. LILLE was its capital. For most of its history this region was part of the state of Flanders, most of which was located in present-day Belgium and the Netherlands. Flemish is still spoken in northwest Flanders. From 1668 to 1697, LOUIS XIV gradually secured this prosperous area for France. It remained a French province until the French Revolution when it became (1789) the roughly coterminous department of Nord.

Artois

Pas de Calais logo 1A former province in northern France, Artois is roughly equivalent to the present department of Pas-de-Calais (6,638 sq km/2,363 sq mi). ARRAS, the major town, was its capital. Artois is bounded by Flanders on the northeast, by Picardy on the south and southwest, and by the English Channel on the northwest. It is a low-lying region with some hills in the south. Coal mining and agriculture are the principal economic activities.

Pas de Calais logo 2Originally part of Flanders, Artois came under French control for the first time in 1180, through the marriage of King Philip II to Isabel of Hainaut. Artois passed to Burgundy in 1329. It became a possession of the Habsburgs in 1477 and a province of Spain in 1493. It was reconquered by the French in 1640; French possession was confirmed by the treaties of the Pyrénées (1659), Nijmegen (1678), and Utrecht (1713). Because of its strategic importance, Artois was the scene of heavy fighting during World War I.


Source: The New Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, Release #8, ©1996

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Centre de Préhistoire du Nord-Pas-de-Calais
The Center of Prehistory is an association which seeks to promote knowledge about regional prehistoric sites, dating from the Paleolithic era down to the Bronze Age. The archaeological discovery of primitive tools during a dig in 1996 near Hermies sheds new light on ancient civilizations in northern Gaul.

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