The climate
With an oceanic climate, characterized by mild and rainy winters and relatively cool summers, the reputation of being a rainy destination often follows the North. However, if it is true that the rainfall can be a little higher here than elsewhere in France, it does not mean that people in the North always go out with their umbrellas and raincoats! In reality, what gives the North its reputation is not the abundance of rain but rather its frequency and its capacity to fall in all seasons with remarkable regularity. In concrete terms, this means that it rains less in Dunkirk or Cambrai than in Nice, but that the number of days when it rains is double (60 days in Nice versus 120 days in Cambrai).
However, the North also has its fair share of sunshine, with beautiful temperature peaks in the summer, when the thermometer happily hovers around 30°C, even exceeding it on many occasions, to the delight of summer visitors. The temperature range is less pronounced in the North than elsewhere, allowing for fairly calm seasonal transitions (albeit a little humid). All of this depends of course on your location in the North: the further away you are from the coast, the more marked the climatic differences (and therefore the temperatures) will be. So don't be surprised if the weather is better in the middle of winter in Dunkerque than in the Avesnois!
A beautiful variety of reliefs
If one had to choose a department to illustrate the expression "variety of the landscape", it would be the Nord which would come out on top without any hesitation. The longest department in France, the 5,743 square kilometers of surface area offer, depending on the location chosen, pastoral landscapes, mountains, maritime expanses, cultivated fields, peaceful waterways and numerous forests where it is good to hike and walk.
Among the most emblematic reliefs, two in particular stand out: Mount Cassel, 176 meters high, and Anor, in the Avesnois, which is the highest point of the department with 272 meters of altitude! We can also mention the Mont des Cats, with an altitude of 164 meters. All these mountains offer beautiful opportunities for walks, sometimes even cross-border.
Beautiful walks are easily made by approaching the coast, where the landscape of the North takes another shape, between beaches and dunes, especially in Grand-Fort-Philippe or from Bray-Dunes to Zuydcoote. The opportunity to breathe in the fresh ocean air or to take a serious iodine cure!
Finally, the landscapes of the North have been strongly marked by human activity in general and mining activity in particular. Many slag heaps can still be found in the landscape, triangular shapes that have become familiar, some of which have been converted into ideal natural spaces in all seasons, as in the Douaisis or the Valenciennois.
Natural areas
About twenty wetlands, limestone hillsides, moors and forests, slag heaps and two natural parks: the North has a large and magnificent pool of natural spaces, a pool that makes it an ideal destination for nature lovers, in all its forms.
The two PNR - for Regional Natural Park - of Scarpe-Escaut and Avesnois are thus first-rate assets. The first one, located near Saint-Amand-les-Eaux, north of Valenciennes, is the very first French PNR, created in 1968. It is remarkable for its large territorial ensembles, organized around the themes of the "inhabited countryside", the "heart of nature", the "open rural arc" and the "open countryside". These include the Scarpe and Hayne plains, the Raismes-Saint-Amand-Wallers forest massif and the Ostrevent plateau. The second one, the PNR de l'Avesnois, covers nearly 125,000 hectares, gathering 129 municipalities and 130,000 inhabitants. Between hedgerows and forests, it is a treasure of biodiversity and a real green lung for the department of the North. There are the forests of Mormal and Trelon as well as the emblematic Haie d'Avesnes, a group of woodlands that surrounded the fortified town of Avesnes-sur-Helpe. Don't miss the five nature reserves, the ponds or the wet meadows: a change of scenery guaranteed!
The place of water
Bordered by the North Sea, the North is a department that has a deep connection with water, in all its forms (and not only the one falling from the sky). There is, of course, this maritime facade of which Dunkirk is the main port and the point of passage for many goods and travelers dreaming of distant horizons and of the sun setting on an azure ocean.
But there are also the rivers that dot and water the territory: the Yser, the Deûle, the Lys, the Escaut, the Scarpe and the Sambre. Each of them is an opportunity to discover the North in a river way, by letting yourself be carried by the waves, on board a boat, a kayak or a canoe: a pleasant way to travel in peace, without hurrying or stressing!
Cities also have this link: Lille and its canal of the Deûle are a perfect example, as well as Gravelines and Grand-Port-Philippe where the Aa flows, a canalized river well known by cruciverbists and which cuts the city in two distinct parts.
