What do you think about Nord Pas De Calais Région ?
I love it! I was brought up for several years by Dominican nuns in the outback between Boulogne and Calais and have extended family in the coastal towns, as well as in Lille and Valenciennes. The countryside is very pretty and unspoilt. The coastal towns were pounded into oblivion by bombardments during WW2 and so under-financed afterwards that it took many years for them to regenerate. The German scars (such as hideous blockhouses) are still there pocking the landscape as a reminder of an occupation that was particularly brutal, which mercifully I did not see, but my childhood was spent with people who had suffered dreadfully under the SS boot and lost everything. Many compensations for war damages were not handed out till the late sixties. One cannot blame the locals for not dancing on the tables. Boulogne had to survive by its fishing. It is a hard life and some people lived in shacks and even upturned boat hulls. It saw its main industries such as steel works progressively disappea
