C.O.A.L. Region Nord-Pas de Calais

The Nord- Pas de Calais region covers an area of 12 414 km2, which is 2,3 % of the French territory. It is one of the most urban and industrial French regions and paradoxically benefits from a lot of rural and agricultural landscapes, because of the fertility of its land. Industry and agriculture often co-exist. Because the region is mostly flat, it is a natural route of communication between Northern and Southern Europe. On the other hand, the region is open to the busiest straight in the world, between France and Great Britain: the Pas de Calais.

The most important feature of the geography of the Nord-Pas de Calais is the existence of two large ensembles: To the North, the Low countries. This corresponds to a great clay and sand plain, and because of the low, often negative altitude characterised by the retreats and advances of the sea. This plain continues across the whole of Europe, over 3000 kilometres, to the Urals. To the South, the High Countries. This is a slightly undulating clay plateau, which marks the beginning of the Paris basin. The mining area is situated on the edge, between the Low and High countries and stretches like a ribbon from east to west, for a length of 120 kilometres and a maximal width of 12 kilometres. The shape of the land was dictated by the form of underground deposits of coal.

Discovered in 1720 in the most Western part, there where it is not very deep, coal was mined until 1990. It was from 1840 onwards that the real industrial adventure of coal began and that the landscape was transformed, on the surface and deep down: the mining quarries and the pit heads spread, new factories were created, housing estates appeared, slag heaps grew, ponds formed following the underground subsidence due to the hollowing out of thousands of tunnels. The economic boom resulting from the mining activity also favoured the demographic and social development of the 19th century. But another reality began to emerge: the Nord-Pas de Calais was becoming one of the most polluted regions of France, and the exploitation of coal was less and less profitable, faced with the competition of other mining areas. In 1968 came the official announcement of the closure of the mines. A dynamic redeployment policy was set in motion: progressively, automobile factories and new zones of activity were set up in the mining area. But this movement did not manage to totally wipe out the economic and social problems created by the decline of the mining activity.

Faced with these problems, the first aim was to wipe away all trace of the industrial past, to transform the "black country" into a "clean country". Hundreds of slag heaps, mining quarries, pit heads, factories were erased, blown up with dynamite.Fortunately, under the influence of a handful of passionate individuals, it was little by little recognised that it was important to preserve the memory of this industrial past. A new dynamic has been in force over the last fifteen years: protection of the slag heaps and subsidence lakes  which have become new natural areas, the renovation of mining housing estates, the reconversion of former mining quarries into cultural venues or business start ups. In 2002, the association Bassin Minier Unesco was created to prepare the application of the Nord-Pas de Calais mining area to Unesco, in view of its inscription on the list of world heritage of Humanity. In 2004,  a former mining site was chosen, in the town of Lens, to accommodate a magnificent cultural project: the future museum of the Louvres-Lens.

The former "Black country" has gradually changed its landscape and reputation. The way the inhabitants of the region see this former mining area is also changing. The great Lille urban conurbation, situated 20 km north, and the agglomerations of the mining area are making new links and thinking about the joint, harmonious development of their territories. Between the former mining area and City place Lille, a new metropolitan area is being drawn up, in which the mining heritage and tourism are no longer banished words.