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How the crowd draws

17 drawings of its land border and 53 drawings of its coast, from memory on Borderline’s France map, 25 September 2026 to 26 October 2026.

Draw Var

In numbers

Last updated on 27 October 2026
The real oneThe crowd’s
Area5,990 km²2,313 sq mi5,218 km²2,015 sq mi12.9% smaller
Outline526 km327 mi418 km260 mi20.5% shorter
Centre6.24° E, 43.44° N6.2° E, 43.4° N6.26° E, 43.42° N6.3° E, 43.4° N3 km south-east2 mi south-east
Westernmost5.66° E, 43.58° N5.7° E, 43.6° N5.67° E, 43.18° N5.7° E, 43.2° N1 km short1 mi short
Easternmost6.93° E, 43.48° N6.9° E, 43.5° N6.94° E, 43.48° N6.9° E, 43.5° Nthe same
Southernmost6.15° E, 43.03° N6.1° E, 43.0° N6.14° E, 43.07° N6.1° E, 43.1° N5 km short3 mi short
Northernmost6.52° E, 43.81° N6.5° E, 43.8° N6.26° E, 43.75° N6.3° E, 43.8° N6 km short4 mi short

Near the land border, 73% of the crowd’s lines run inside Var. Near the coast, 54% 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.

Var’s coast: 265 km in the game, 479 km officially.

3 neighbours
Border withIn the gameThe crowd’s
Alpes-de-Haute-Provence114 km in the game93 km the crowd’s18.4% shorter
Bouches-du-Rhône105 km in the game99 km the crowd’s5.7% shorter
Alpes-Maritimes64 km in the game50 km the crowd’s21.9% shorter
The coast265 km in the game479 km officially193 km the crowd’s27.2% shorter

How it is measured

The crowd’s Var: every few km along the real line, each drawing’s nearest point, inside Var 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 70 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 Var yourself and add your line to the next update.