Douai

Nord-Pas de Calais (French pronunciation: [nɔʁ pa də kalɛ] ( listen); Dutch: Noord-Nauw van Kales), Nord for short, is one of the 27 regions of France. It consists of the departments of Nord and Pas-de-Calais, in the north and has a border with Belgium. Most of the region was once part of the Southern Netherlands, within the Low Countries, and gradually became part of France between 1477 and 1678. The historical provinces now included in Nord-Pas-de-Calais are Artois, Boulonnais, Calaisis, Cambraisis, French Flanders, French Hainaut and portions of northern Picardy, and the regional nickname Bassin Minier or Meiners-Bassen (Miners' or Mining Basin in the region's two languages) derived from historically large mining deposits. These provincial designations are still frequently used by the inhabitants, which offers a sense of civic pride.

A barge is a flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods. Some barges are not self-propelled and need to be towed by tugboats or pushed by towboats. Canal barges, towed by draft animals on an adjacent towpath, contended with the railway in the early industrial revolution, but were outcompeted in the carriage of high-value items due to the higher speed, falling costs, and route flexibility of rail.