← France

How the crowd draws

20 drawings of its land border and 61 drawings of its coast, from memory on Borderline’s France map, 25 September 2026 to 26 October 2026.

Draw Pyrénées-Atlantiques

In numbers

Last updated on 27 October 2026
The real oneThe crowd’s
Area7,714 km²2,978 sq mi7,029 km²2,714 sq mi8.9% smaller
Outline585 km363 mi552 km343 mi5.5% shorter
Centre0.76° W, 43.26° N0.8° W, 43.3° N0.82° W, 43.30° N0.8° W, 43.3° N7 km north-west4 mi north-west
Westernmost1.79° W, 43.37° N1.8° W, 43.4° N1.76° W, 43.39° N1.8° W, 43.4° N3 km short2 mi short
Easternmost0.03° E, 43.34° N0.0° E, 43.3° N0.06° W, 43.26° N0.1° W, 43.3° N7 km short4 mi short
Southernmost0.55° W, 42.78° N0.6° W, 42.8° N0.44° W, 42.83° N0.4° W, 42.8° N6 km short4 mi short
Northernmost0.45° W, 43.60° N0.4° W, 43.6° N0.77° W, 43.63° N0.8° W, 43.6° N3 km beyond2 mi beyond

Near the land border, 57% of the crowd’s lines run inside Pyrénées-Atlantiques. Near the coast, 19% 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.

Pyrénées-Atlantiques’s coast: 33 km in the game, 62 km officially.

4 neighbours
Border withIn the gameThe crowd’s
Spain236 km in the game207 km the crowd’s12.3% shorter
Hautes-Pyrénées192 km in the game171 km the crowd’s10.9% shorter
Landes171 km in the game183 km the crowd’s7.0% longer
Gers16 km in the game14 km the crowd’s12.5% shorter
The coast33 km in the game62 km officially31 km the crowd’s6.1% shorter

How it is measured

The crowd’s Pyrénées-Atlantiques: every few km along the real line, each drawing’s nearest point, inside Pyrénées-Atlantiques 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 81 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 Pyrénées-Atlantiques yourself and add your line to the next update.