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Bailleul Belle
Commune
Market place and belfry of Bailleul
Coat of arms
Bailleul Location within Hauts-de-France region Bailleul
Coordinates: 50°44′21″N 2°44′00″E / 50.7392°N 2.7333°E / 50.7392; 2.7333Coordinates: 50°44′21″N 2°44′00″E / 50.7392°N 2.7333°E / 50.7392; 2.7333
Country	France
Region	Hauts-de-France
Department	Nord
Arrondissement	Dunkerque
Canton	Bailleul
Intercommunality	Monts de Flandres - Plaine de la Lys
Government
• Mayor (2008–2014)	Michel Giloen
Area1	43.42 km2 (16.76 sq mi)
Population (2009)2	13,989
• Density	320/km2 (830/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
INSEE/Postal code	59043 /59270
Elevation	14–86 m (46–282 ft) (avg. 44 m or 144 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. 2Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Location of Bailleul in the arrondissement of Dunkirk

Bailleul (Belle in Dutch) is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It is located in French Flanders, 3 km (2 mi) from the Belgian border and 26 km (16 mi) northwest of Lille.

Population

Politics

Presidential Elections 2nd Round

^[1]

Heraldry

The arms of Bailleul are blazoned : Gules, a cross vair.

Media

Bailleul is the birthplace of French filmmaker Bruno Dumont and served as the setting for his first two feature films. This area is also a setting in the Timothy Findley book The Wars.

Carnival

The inhabitants of Bailleul celebrate carnival with five days of processions and other festivities.
The carnival has taken place since 1853, when the Philanthropic Company of Bailleul was founded. During the event, a search takes place for the needy ones of the city. The Gargantua Giant chairs the festivities, seated on his float and accompanied by his kitchen boys.

At the end of Shrove Tuesday, after the final procession of around 50 floats, with local groups, brass bands and plenty of confetti, Doctor Francisco Piccolissimo tries to cure the excesses of some inhabitants in an unconventional way in front of the town hall, and the festival continues late into the night in the town's cafés and bars.

Points of interest

• Jardin des Plantes Sauvages du Conservatoire botanique national de Bailleul

Railways

Bailleul has a railway station on the line from Lille to Calais and Dunkirk.

International relations

Bailleul is twinned with:

• 
  Werne (Germany) since 1967


• 
  Hawick, Scotland (UK) since 1973


• 
  Izegem (Belgium) since 1992


• 
  Yaka (Togo)


• 
  Kyritz (Germany) since 2012

Personalities

• Edmond de Coussemaker


• 
  Pharaon de Winter, painter
  


• 
  Marguerite Yourcenar, academic
  


• 
  Jean Delobel, politician
  


• 
  Michel Delebarre, politician
  


• 
  Bruno Dumont, director and filmmaker
  


• 
  Philippe Édouard Léon Van Tieghem, Biologist and botanist born in Bailleul in 1839


• 
  Jean-Luc Samyn, jockey in American thoroughbred racing

See also

• Communes of the Nord department


• French Flanders

References

Sources

• INSEE commune file


• Bailleul city

Notes

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bailleul (Nord).

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