The French town of Armentières is situated along the railway-line from Lille to Dunkerque and Calais in the Département 'Nord' (No. 59) and borders in its northernmost part with Belgium. The border runs through the residential quarter (Le) Bizet, which also exists under the same name on the Belgian side (Province Hainaut).

F-59280 Armentières
25.200 inhabitants
60 feet above sea level
Distances: Lille: 14 miles; Dunkerque: 37 miles; Paris: 150 miles;
Kortrijk (B): 22 miles

B-7783 Le Bizet (Ploegsteert)
Part of the borough 'Comines-Warneton' in Hainaut province.

View/map of the Northern suburbs.

On our way to the border: from the town centre to the north and we cross the 'Canal de Dérivation de la Lys' which is not yet the border, but admittedly cuts off the northern living quarters from the rest of the town.

(Avenue Aristide Briand/avenue Léon Blum)

On our footwalk to the border.

In the quarter 'Le Bizet' at the end of avenue Léon Blum we suddenly reach the border. "République Française - Bureau des Douanes" can be read on this building at the corner, yet there is no (more) customs office nowadays.

Take the zebra-crossing and we are in Belgium! Now looking back down the ' Avenue Léon Blum' in Armentières (F) from Belgian territory.
On the right side the pub 'Taverne de la Douane' and on the left the former French customs office.

Arrival in Belgium: the avenue Léon Blum becomes the Rue d' Armentières / Armentiersstraat. From this point on, the street names are bilingual:

On the Belgian side the street names are bilingual French/Dutch, because we are in the Comines - Warneton (Komen-Waasten) community, which is Walloon territory since the final determination of the linguistic border, but is an exclave in Flanders.

Upon re-entering France.

Avenue Léon Blum

a short walk back (say 200 yards) on French ground and then turn left into Rue Marcel Wramour: again we reach the border after 150 yards.

rue M. Wramour (F) / Corner rue des Quatre-Poteaux/Vierpalen straat (B)

Bus stop of the Walloon "TEC", with stickers of the Flemish public transport 'De Lijn' (=the line)

A the end of French rue M. Wramour (F), it is difficult to determine the exact state frontier here, but my guess is that the two concrete poles where the footpath ends must be the border.

The border seen from the Belgian side with red post-office box of Belgian 'La Poste' at the wall: Looking back to Rue M. Wramour in France.

rue Duribvenstraat (B)

Standing right in front of the letter-box. The border must be on the left side of this side street, the butcher shop on the right still is in Belgium.

Standing near the entrance of the butcher shop and looking over Rue des Quatre-Poteaux / Vierpalenstraat: estimated borderline.

Rue Sagnier, Corner rue Albert 1er, the northernmost living-houses in Armentières-Le Bizet.

The French pharmacy in Le Bizet / Armentières.

avenue Marc Saignier