Nord-Pas-De-Calais

The north of France, specifically the department of Nord-Pas-de-Calais, has a character all its own. At least it appears that way to anyone who has seen the popular 2008 film by Dany Boon, Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis, whose title translates into English as Welcome to the Sticks. The movie tells the story of Philippe Abrams (played by Kad Merad), a post office manager in the glorious south of France, who gets caught impersonating the disabled in order to secure a cushy job on the French Riviera. As punishment, he gets transferred for two years to work in a small village in the north of France. Devastated by this forced change, Abrams, like most French southerners from the land of warm climes and rich cuisine, expects to find in the north a community of retarded coal miners existing in sub-zero temperatures who pronounce ‘a’ as ‘o’. He slowly warms to the dietary and dialectically challenged locals (notably Boon’s ingénue, Antoine) in this hilarious and tender comedy, which you will want to watch with subtitles in order to understand the northern dialect and accent. It will make you want to visit the north of France to see if it’s anything like the movie.

Actually, it is. The movie was filmed in the real village called Bergues, situated just a few miles south of Dunkirk. Here you can visit most of the places seen in the movie: the bell tower in the town square, the outdoor café where Philippe crashes his bike, the lingerie shop where Philippe runs into famous French actress Line Renaud (who plays Dany Boon’s mother in the movie), and the restaurant at which one of the funniest scenes in the movie takes place.

In this comedy about misconceptions, love and true friendship, Danny Boon gives us an enjoyable lesson in avoiding making assumptions about people. Boon himself is from this region and had wanted for years to display his home town as the warm, colorful region it really is. Just make sure to watch the movie first so you can learn a little about the local customs and get used to the dialect! The region is quite accessible by TGV (via Dunkirk or Lille).