- Picardy (Wikipedia)
Picardy (/ˈpɪkərdi/; Picard and French: Picardie, French: [pikaʁdi], Picard: [piˈkaʀdi]; West Flemish and Dutch: Picardië) is a historical and cultural territory and a former administrative region located in northern France. The first mentions of this province date to the Middle Ages: it gained its first official recognition in the 13th century through the nation of Picardy at the University of Paris and entered French administration in the 14th century.
- Hauts-de-France (Wikivoyage)
Hauts-de-France (Upper France) (Picard: Heuts-d’Franche) is the northernmost region of France, located to the north of the French capital Paris and situated on the English Channel at the point closest to England. The region also fronts much of the French border with Belgium. The area is sadly known for its central part in the trench warfare of the First World War (1914-1918), perhaps most notoriously the Battle of the Somme, which lasted four and a half months during which more than one million men and women lost their lives. Unsurprisingly, Hauts-de-France hosts a large number of battlefields, war cemeteries and memorials. Less well-known, but still worth your time are the region’s many belfries and Gothic churches, and the remnants of France’s industrial heartland. Hauts-de-France was created in 2016 by merging Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardy.
