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How the crowd draws

39 drawings of its land border and 44 drawings of its coast, from memory on Borderline’s France map, 25 September 2026 to 25 October 2026.

Draw Calvados

In numbers

Last updated on 27 October 2026
The real oneThe crowd’s
Area5,572 km²2,152 sq mi5,669 km²2,189 sq mi1.7% bigger
Outline513 km319 mi483 km300 mi5.8% shorter
Centre0.36° W, 49.10° N0.4° W, 49.1° N0.35° W, 49.10° N0.4° W, 49.1° N1 km north-east1 mi north-east
Westernmost1.16° W, 48.83° N1.2° W, 48.8° N1.12° W, 49.30° N1.1° W, 49.3° N3 km short2 mi short
Easternmost0.45° E, 49.02° N0.4° E, 49.0° N0.43° E, 49.03° N0.4° E, 49.0° N1 km short1 mi short
Southernmost0.84° W, 48.75° N0.8° W, 48.8° N0.86° W, 48.80° N0.9° W, 48.8° N5 km short3 mi short
Northernmost0.28° E, 49.43° N0.3° E, 49.4° N0.29° E, 49.43° N0.3° E, 49.4° Nthe same

Near the land border, 49% of the crowd’s lines run inside Calvados. Near the coast, 52% run inland.

Borders and coast

Why two lengths?

A line’s length depends on how closely it is drawn. The game’s lines are simplified: they keep a point every few kilometres and cut across small bends. The official lengths, from the Observatoire national de la mer et du littoral (coasts, 2015 to 2017), are measured on other lines. A border measured on a finer line, following every bend of its rivers and ridges, comes out longer.

Coasts differ most, and either way. Some official coastlines follow every inlet and island (Canada’s 202,080 km); others are smoothed on purpose, crossing bays and sounds (the United States’ 19,924 km), and can come out shorter than the game’s.

Players draw against the game’s line and are scored against it, so the crowd’s length is compared with the game’s, both measured the same way. Set against an official length measured another way, the comparison would say more about the two methods than about the crowd.

Calvados’s coast: 114 km in the game, 131 km officially.

3 neighbours
Border withIn the gameThe crowd’s
Manche171 km in the game125 km the crowd’s26.9% shorter
Orne153 km in the game162 km the crowd’s5.9% longer
Eure91 km in the game97 km the crowd’s6.6% longer
The coast114 km in the game131 km officially111 km the crowd’s2.6% shorter

How it is measured

The crowd’s Calvados: every few km along the real line, each drawing’s nearest point, inside Calvados or outside it; the median over a short stretch is where the crowd puts the line there, and the real outline moved by it is the crowd’s. Where the move folds a narrow inlet over itself, the loop is cut.

The 83 drawings that scored 10 or more on Borderline’s France map, scribbles left out, the real line the game’s own. Area true to scale; the outline copies the real line’s detail, so its length changes only where the shape moves or a loop is cut.

Draw Calvados yourself and add your line to the next update.