HAUTS-DE-FRANCE
In Nord-Pas de Calais, Fasthôtel welcomes you to the Nord department in its hotel in Lille Lesquin, close to the airport, at the Fasthôtel in Dunkerque - Grande-Synthe and at the Relais Fasthotel in Somain.
Industry, technologies, innovation: the fine track record of Nord-Pas de Calais
The Nord-Pas-de-Calais region is leading in many areas:
- The leading European rail region, it also occupies first place in France for: agri-food exports and distribution.
- It ranks 2nd in France for: logistics, automobiles, technical textiles and digital.
- It ranks 3rd among French regions for plastics and the image industry.
Competitiveness clusters
- Aquimer brings together the seafood agri-food sector.
- I-Trans invents, designs, manufactures and sells the transport systems of the future.
- MAUD designates the pole of materials and applications for sustainable use.
- the “NSL” is the center dedicated to the nutrition-health-longevity sector.
- Picom, a competitiveness cluster for the retail industry, imagines and implements the distribution of the future.
- TEAM2 for environmental technologies applied to materials and materials
- UP-TEX aims to promote the incorporation of textiles in all professions seeking new performances.
The industrial history of Nord-Pas de Calais
Nord-Pas-Calais, historically industrial, has faced the crises which hit the mining, steel and textile sectors, pillars of its economy, since the 1970s.
Industrial reconversion: the region has strengthened sectors already present, particularly the automobile industry or the tertiary sector in the Lille metropolitan area with the creation of activity centers such as Euralille. More recently in the field of new technologies or vehicles of the future.
The development of sales activities for goods and services has also contributed to the new dynamics of the region. The North is a French stronghold of mass distribution and mail order sales.
Major brands are established in Nord-Pas de Calais: Bonduelle, Grand'Mère cafés, Leroy-Merlin, Damart, Decathlon, La Redoute, etc.
Rehabilitation: many industrial wastelands, places of workers' memory have been preserved and/or converted. This is how the archives of the world of work, which became a national center in 2008, were installed in 1993 in Roubaix in the former Motte-Bossut spinning mill created around 1840. In 2012, UNESCO included the Nord-Pas de Calais mining basin on the World Heritage list!
The Nord-Pas de Calais mining basin is a UNESCO World Heritage Site
Since June 30, 2012, after an application that mobilized all the region's energies, this "evolving cultural landscape" has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Covering 4000 hectares, the complex includes 109 remarkable objects on 353 sites, constituting the mining landscape and bearing witness to its culture from the pits to the surface installations: slag heaps, slag heaps, workers' towns called corons, schools, etc.
From the Louvre-Lens to the Atlantic Wall, cultural and memorial tourism
The Louvre-Lens, the first decentralized regional branch of the famous Louvre Museum in Paris, was inaugurated at the end of December 2012. It was built on the former site of the industrial zone of "carreau n°9" created in the 19th century by the Charbonnages de France. The new museum is integrated into an environment that is part of the Nord-Pas de Calais mining basin, registered in June 2012 as a UNESCO world heritage site. The slag heaps have been preserved in the landscape and nearby, the housing estate n°9 has been restored. The Saint-Théodore church, the school, the teacher's accommodation, the engineer's house and the Jeanne d'Arc workers' estate form a whole that reflects the social housing typical of the mining basin.
Other rehabilitated industrial wastelands: the textile museum in Fourmies in the former Prouvost-Masurel spinning mill closed in 1978. The historic mining centre which took place on the site of the Delloye pit in Lewarde is today one of the most visited museums in the region.
Memory of the war of 1939-1945: many blockhouses are still erected along the Opal Coast. These are vestiges of the Atlantic Wall erected by the Germans in 1942 and 1944 to counter the landing, mainly on the coasts of the Channel, from the North to 60% against only 18% in Normandy.
The Opal Coast and the Northern beaches
From Dunkirk in the North to the seaside resort of Le Touquet in the South, the Opal Coast stretches along the coastline for 120 kilometres of fine sandy beaches overlooked by impressive cliffs.
The northern beaches around Dunkirk: in Dunkirk - Malo-les Bains. At the southern entrance to Dunkirk in Gravelines: Grand Fort Philippe and Petit-Fort Philippe. To the north: Leffrinckoucke and Zuydcoote.
The Deux-Caps form a 23-kilometre area between Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer, classified as a Grand Site de France in spring 2011. It includes eight communes and notably includes the cliffs of Cap Gris-Nez and Cap Blanc Nez and Gris Nez which jut into the sea and is part of the Caps et Marais d'Opale Regional Natural Park.
Industrial and high-tech Picardy
Picardy, which has three departments: Aisne, whose capital is Laon, Oise and Somme. It is a historically industrial region, particularly in the automotive, metallurgy and packaging sectors. To support the changes that have had an impact on these industries, it is now relaunching its activity by moving towards high technologies. The Region now has three competitiveness clusters linked to its historical know-how. - Laon in Aisne is home to the IAR cluster dedicated to industries and agro-resources. - Picardy is also part of the I-Trans cluster, with Nord Pas-de-Calais, specializing in sustainable land transport and logistics. Recognized for its industrial and scientific skills in rail transport. - The UP-Tex cluster specializes in "Advanced Textiles", design and mass customization. Also called "smart textiles", their applications are of interest to very diverse sectors: health, transport, construction, sports and leisure equipment and even protective equipment.
The Picardy of Champagne and Maroilles!
The Aisne in Picardy extends from Château-Thierry in the South near Troyes to Saint Quentin or Vervin, respectively at the gateways to Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Belgium. It is the terroir of two emblematic French products that are not always associated with this department. Indeed, when we think of the Champagne vineyards, the first names that come to mind are Reims or Epernay. The Champagne of the Aisne, in the south of the department, near Troyes is less well-known even if it represents around 10% of Champagne production. Similarly, if the AOC Maroilles cheese is known to be a "Ch'ti" specialty, it is made in Avesnois and its appellation is shared by the departments of Nord and Aisne.
Memories of 14-18: the Chemin des Dames and the Dragon’s Cave
At the beginning of 1915 during the First World War, German troops took possession of a former stone quarry on the Chemin des Dames in the Aisne, which had been in operation from the 16th to the 19th century. The cave, which had been converted, quickly became a real barracks. This entrenched camp, protected by machine gun batteries, was a strategic location during the 14-18 war. 15 metres underground, on the ridge road, the site overlooks the Aisne and Ailette valleys. In June 1917, French soldiers managed to take part of the Dragon's Cave and push back the Germans at the end of the war, both German and French camps. Today, visitors can walk along the Chemin des Dames, which is lined with memories of the 14-18 war. The Dragon's Cave is both a memorial and a museum. At the heart of the underground galleries, a contemporary scenography enriched by archive images, sound testimonies and videos allows us to understand, in a very lively way, the daily life and hell experienced by the Poilus and the German soldiers.
