Located in the Nord Pas de Calais region of France, the town of Henin Beaumont is a former coal-mining centre that lies between Douai and Lens, but is also shares a border with Belgium and is just a short water crossing from the white cliffs of Dover in England.

Occupied continuously ever since Roman times, the town was finally chartered in 1229 and later made a county by Philip II of Spain in 1579 before ultimately being annexed by France in 1678.

Today, Henin Beaumont is a thriving urban centre for textiles, engineering industries and food processing, among other industries, but the region has also seen a recent growth in tourism, thanks in part to the opening of the Channel Tunnel. In addition, be sure to check out the London-Brussels-Paris railway lines here, which whisk passengers to the three major ferry ports of the region, Dunkirk, Calais and Boulogne sur Mer.