← France

How the crowd draws

29 drawings of its land border and 69 drawings of its coast, from memory on Borderline’s France map, 25 September 2026 to 26 October 2026.

Draw Nord

In numbers

Last updated on 27 October 2026
The real oneThe crowd’s
Area5,711 km²2,205 sq mi5,341 km²2,062 sq mi6.5% smaller
Outline714 km444 mi777 km483 mi8.8% longer
Centre3.22° E, 50.45° N3.2° E, 50.4° N3.19° E, 50.48° N3.2° E, 50.5° N4 km north-west3 mi north-west
Westernmost2.07° E, 51.01° N2.1° E, 51.0° N2.16° E, 51.02° N2.2° E, 51.0° N6 km short4 mi short
Easternmost4.23° E, 50.07° N4.2° E, 50.1° N4.21° E, 50.07° N4.2° E, 50.1° N2 km short1 mi short
Southernmost4.09° E, 49.97° N4.1° E, 50.0° N4.09° E, 50.02° N4.1° E, 50.0° N5 km short3 mi short
Northernmost2.55° E, 51.09° N2.5° E, 51.1° N2.54° E, 51.08° N2.5° E, 51.1° N1 km short1 mi short

Near the land border, 50% of the crowd’s lines run inside Nord. Near the coast, 55% 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.

Nord’s coast: 50 km in the game, 47 km officially.

4 neighbours
Border withIn the gameThe crowd’s
Belgium321 km in the game310 km the crowd’s3.4% shorter
Pas-de-Calais297 km in the game425 km the crowd’s43.1% longer
Aisne104 km in the game92 km the crowd’s11.5% shorter
Somme10 km in the game4 km the crowd’s60.0% shorter
The coast50 km in the game47 km officially29 km the crowd’s42.0% shorter

How it is measured

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