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How the crowd draws

18 drawings of its land border and 80 drawings of its coast, from memory on Borderline’s France map, 25 September 2026 to 26 October 2026.

Draw Landes

In numbers

Last updated on 27 October 2026
The real oneThe crowd’s
Area9,335 km²3,604 sq mi8,738 km²3,374 sq mi6.4% smaller
Outline580 km360 mi571 km355 mi1.5% shorter
Centre0.78° W, 43.97° N0.8° W, 44.0° N0.80° W, 43.99° N0.8° W, 44.0° N2 km north-west2 mi north-west
Westernmost1.52° W, 43.53° N1.5° W, 43.5° N1.50° W, 43.58° N1.5° W, 43.6° N2 km short1 mi short
Easternmost0.14° E, 44.11° N0.1° E, 44.1° N0.05° E, 43.86° N0.1° E, 43.9° N7 km short4 mi short
Southernmost1.15° W, 43.49° N1.1° W, 43.5° N0.60° W, 43.53° N0.6° W, 43.5° N5 km short3 mi short
Northernmost1.08° W, 44.53° N1.1° W, 44.5° N1.08° W, 44.52° N1.1° W, 44.5° N2 km short1 mi short

Near the land border, 58% of the crowd’s lines run inside Landes. Near the coast, 37% 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.

Landes’s coast: 107 km in the game, 105 km officially.

4 neighbours
Border withIn the gameThe crowd’s
Pyrénées-Atlantiques171 km in the game163 km the crowd’s4.7% shorter
Gironde144 km in the game161 km the crowd’s11.8% longer
Gers120 km in the game114 km the crowd’s5.0% shorter
Lot-et-Garonne51 km in the game45 km the crowd’s11.8% shorter
The coast107 km in the game105 km officially102 km the crowd’s4.7% shorter

How it is measured

The crowd’s Landes: every few km along the real line, each drawing’s nearest point, inside Landes 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 98 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 Landes yourself and add your line to the next update.