Hauts-de-France is the northern region, a land of agricultural plains, industrial towns and the Channel coast, which for centuries was one of the most fiercely contested battlefields in Europe. Between France, the Spanish Netherlands, the Holy Roman Empire and England, these fertile lands changed hands with the ebb and flow of wars and treaties, leaving behind military fortifications of exceptional quality and density.
Lille, a northern metropolis and the region’s capital, is a city with a Flemish soul, whose Baroque Grand-Place, the Vieille Bourse and Vauban’s citadel bear witness to its affiliation with the Spanish Netherlands until the 17th century. Arras, with its Grand-Place and Place des Héros lined with Flemish gable-fronted buildings, Cambrai, Douai and its belfries, Bergues immortalised by the cinema, and Boulogne-sur-Mer with its medieval upper town within the city walls form a constellation of historic towns of rare quality.
The memory of the two world wars is ever-present in the region: the Chemin des Dames, the battlefields of the Somme and the military cemeteries at Vimy, Thiepval and Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, where hundreds of thousands of soldiers of all nationalities lie buried, bear witness to the immeasurable sacrifice made by these peoples for the freedom of Europe. Chantilly and Compiègne, royal castles at the gateway to the region, serve as a reminder that the kings of France used to come here to hunt in forests that remain among the most beautiful in France today.