County of FlandersToday part ofBelgiumFranceNetherlandsThe County of Flanders was one of the most powerful political entities in the medieval Low Countries, located on the North Sea coast of modern-day Belgium and north-eastern France. Unlike the neighbouring states of Brabant and Hainaut, it was within the territory of the Kingdom of France. The counts of Flanders held the northernmost part of the kingdom, and were among the original twelve peers of France.
County of HainautToday part ofBelgiumFranceThe County of Hainaut ( ; French: Comté de Hainaut; Dutch: Graafschap Henegouwen; Latin: Comitatus Hanoniensis), sometimes spelled Hainault, was a territorial lordship within the medieval Holy Roman Empire that straddled the present-day border of Belgium and France. Its most important towns included Mons (Dutch: Bergen), now in Belgium, and Valenciennes, now in France.
Departments of FranceAdministrative subdivision in FranceIn the administrative divisions of France, the department (French: département, pronounced) is one of the three levels of government under the national level ("territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. There are a total of 101 departments, consisting of ninety-six departments in metropolitan France, and five overseas departments (which are also classified as overseas regions).
LilleLille ( LEEL; French: [lil] ; Dutch: Rijsel [ˈrɛisəl] ; Picard: Lile; West Flemish: Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders. Positioned along the Deûle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the Nord department, and the main city of the European Metropolis of Lille.
Dutch languageDutch (Endonym: Nederlands [ˈneːdərlɑnts] , Nederlandse taal) is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language and is the third most spoken Germanic language. In Europe, Dutch is the native language of most of the population of the Netherlands and Flanders (which includes 60% of the population of Belgium).
French languageFrench (français or langue française) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, French and its closest relatives—the langues d'oïl, historically spoken in northern France and southern Belgium—descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. It was influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul and by the GermanicFrankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders.
Picard languagePicard ( , alsoUS: ; French:) also known as 'Roman Flemish' or 'Romane flamande' is a langue d'oïl of the Romancelanguage family spoken in the northernmost region of France and parts of Hainaut province in Belgium. Administratively, this area is divided between the French Hauts-de-France region and the Belgian Wallonia along the border between both countries due to its traditional core being the districts of Tournai and Mons (Walloon Picardy).
BelgiumCountry in Northwestern EuropeBelgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to the south, and the North Sea to the west.Archdiocese of CambraiThe Archdiocese of Cambrai (Latin: Archdiocesis Cameracensis; French: Archidiocèse de Cambrai) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in France, comprising the arrondissements of , Cambrai, Douai, and Valenciennes within the département of Nord, in the region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais. The current archbishop is , appointed in August 2018. Since 2008 the archdiocese has been a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Lille.
Regions of FranceFrance is divided into eighteen administrative regions (French: régions administratives, singular région administrative or just région, ). Twelve of which are located in the Hexagon (in Europe), another one is Corsica, while the other five are overseas regions (not to be confused with the overseas collectivities, which have a semi-autonomous status).
Hauts-de-FranceHauts-de-France (French: [o d(ə) fʁɑ̃s] ; Picard: Heuts d'Franche; lit. 'Heights of France'), also referred to in English as Upper France, is the northernmost region of France, created by the territorial reform of French regions in 2014, from a merger of Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardy. Its prefecture is Lille. The new region came into existence on 1 January 2016, after regional elections in December 2015.
Prefectures in FranceIn France, a prefecture (French: préfecture, pronounced [pʁefɛktyʁ] ) may be: the chef-lieu de département, the commune in which the administration of a department is located; the chef-lieu de région, the commune in which the administration of a region is located; the jurisdiction of a prefecture; the official residence or headquarters of a prefect.*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.