Tourcoing
Tourcoing is a city in northern France on the Belgian border. It is designated municipally as a commune within the department of Nord. Located to the north-northeast of Lille, adjacent to Roubaix, Tourcoing is the chef-lieu of two cantons and the fourth largest city in the French region of Hauts-de-France ranked by population with about 97,000 inhabitants.
Together with the cities of Lille, Roubaix, Villeneuve-d'Ascq and eighty-six other communes, Tourcoing is part of four-city-centred metropolitan area inhabited by more than 1.1 million people: the Métropole Européenne de Lille. To a greater extent, Tourcoing belongs to a vast conurbation formed with the Belgian cities of Mouscron, Kortrijk and Tournai, which gave birth to the first European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation in January 2008, Lille–Kortrijk–Tournai with an aggregate of just over 2 million inhabitants.
History
The city was the site of a significant victory for France during the French Revolutionary Wars. Marshal Charles Pichegru and his generals Joseph Souham and Jean Moreau defeated a combined force of British and Austrian troops in the Battle of Tourcoing on 29 Floréal II.Main sights
- Church of St Christopher, considered one of the most beautiful Neo-Gothic edifices of Nord. In stone and brickwork, it has an high bell tower with more than 80 bells.
- Hospice de Havre, founded in 1260. The cloister and the chapel date from the seventeenth century.
- Hôtel de Ville, in Second Empire style.
- Jardin botanique de Tourcoing, a botanical garden and arboretum.
Transport
The Tourcoing station is a railway station offering direct connections to Lille and Paris, Kortrijk, Ostend, Ghent and Antwerp. The town was formerly served by the Somain-Halluin Railway. The nearest airports to Tourcoing are Lille Airport which is located 23 km away and Brussels Airport which is located 117 km away.Notable people
- Yohan Cabaye, footballer
- Jean-Marc Degraeve, chess grandmaster
- Stéphane Denève, conductor
- Achille Desurmont, writer
- Brigitte Fossey, actress
- Anna Gomis, wrestler
- Henri Padou, water polo player and 1924 Olympic gold medallist
- Brigitte Lahaie, pornstar
- Joseph-Charles Lefèbvre, bishop of Bourges, cardinal, cousin of
- Marcel Lefebvre, missionary priest and, later, archbishop, cousin of Joseph-Charles
- Mr. Sam, a popular deejay and producer running his own record label since 2008.
- Albert Roussel, composer
- Yves Devernay, organist
Notable Startups
In 2013, Maxime Piquette and Charles De Potter founded iCreo, a digital audio company in Tourcoing. The company created RadioKing, a platform for internet radio, and Ausha, a platform for podcast hosting and marketing. It received support from regional funders, Nord France Amorquage and IRD Gestion. The company is now the platform for media outlets Le Figaro, Liberation, l'Équipe and AFP, as well as large corporations and independent content producers.International relations
Twin towns - sister cities
Tourcoing is twinned with:- Biella, Italy
- Bottrop, Germany
- Jastrzębie-Zdrój, Poland
- Mitte (Berlin), Germany
- Mühlhausen, Germany
- Partyzanski (Minsk), Belarus