Shires ▸ Relief
The average altitude is around 98 meters, with very low and flat reliefs in the plain of Flanders, hills and low plateaus in Artois and Picardy, and hilly landscapes in Boulonnais, Avesnois and Thiérache. The highest point is reached in Watigny, in Thiérache, with 295 meters.
In France, the word intercommunalité designates a structure of public cooperation which groups together several municipalities. As for the French word pays (pronounced peh-ee), it both means country/state and shire/traditional county (but the French word for an earl's county is not pays but comté).
The shires on the map below are not administrative divisions (therefore the word shire is a better translation than the word county). However, some of them are official economic and tourist cooperation areas, and all the borders of the shires are based on the territory of the official intercommunalités of which they are composed (one pays = several intercommunalités). A tourist map is also available here →