Flemish dialects in the context of Brussels-Capital Region

The Métropole Européenne de Lille (French pronunciation: [metʁɔpɔl øʁɔpeɛn də lil], MEL; English: "European Metropolis of Lille") is the métropole, an intercommunal structure, composed by a network of big cities (Lille, Roubaix, Tourcoing, Villeneuve d'Ascq, Armentières etc.) whose major city is the city of Lille. It is located in the Nord department, in the Hauts-de-France region, northern France – bordering both the Flemish and Walloon regions of Belgium. It was created in January 2015, replacing the previous Communauté urbaine de Lille, and covers that part of the Lille metropolitan area that lies in France. Its area is 671.9 km. Its population was 1,179,050 in 2019, of which 234,475 in Lille proper. The annual budget of the métropole is €1,865 billion (2018).

Belgian French (French: français de Belgique) is the variety of French spoken mainly among the French Community of Belgium, alongside related Oïl languages of the region such as Walloon, Picard, Champenois, and Lorrain (Gaumais). The French language spoken in Belgium differs very little from that of France or Switzerland. It is characterized by the use of some terms that are considered archaic in France, as well as loanwords from languages such as Walloon, Picard, and Belgian Dutch.

French is one of the three official languages of Belgium, along with Dutch and German. It is spoken natively by around 40% of the population, primarily in the regions of Wallonia and Brussels. The French spoken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi is largely based on Belgian French, as all three countries are former colonies of Belgium.

The Pale of Calais was a territory in northern France ruled by the monarchs of England from 1347 to 1558. The area, which centred on Calais, was taken following the Battle of Crécy in 1346 and the subsequent Siege of Calais, and was confirmed at the Treaty of Brétigny in 1360, in the reign of Edward III of England. It became an important economic centre for England in Europe's textile trade centred in Flanders.

The Pale, which was historically part of Flanders and Artois, also provided England with a permanent strategic, defensible outpost from which it could plan and launch military action on the continent. Its position on the English Channel meant it could be reinforced, garrisoned and supplied over the Straits of Dover. The territory was bilingual with English and Flemish commonly spoken. It was represented in the Parliament of England by the Calais constituency.

East Flemish (Dutch: Oost-Vlaams, French: flamand oriental) is a collective term for the two easternmost subdivisions ("true" East Flemish, also called Core Flemish, and Waaslandic) of the so-called Flemish dialects, native to the southwest of the Dutch language area, which also include West Flemish. Their position between West Flemish and Brabantian has caused East Flemish dialects to be grouped with the latter as well. They are spoken mainly in the province of East Flanders and a narrow strip in the southeast of West Flanders in Belgium and eastern Zeelandic Flanders in the Netherlands. Even though the dialects of the Dender area are often discussed together with the East Flemish dialects because of their location, the latter are actually South Brabantian.

Méteren (French pronunciation: [metʁɛn]; from Flemish; Meteren in modern Dutch spelling) is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. In October 1914, the British army passed through Meteren during the Race to the Sea, and the future Field-Marshal Montgomery of Alamein received a DSO at the rank of Lieutenant.

50°45′N 3°59′E / 50.75°N 03.99°E / 50.75; 03.99The pagus of Brabant (Latin: Pagus Bracbantensis; Dutch: Brabantgouw) was a geographical region in the early Middle Ages, located in what is now Belgium. It was the first region known to have been called Brabant, and it included the modern capital of Belgium, Brussels. It was divided between the neighbouring counties of Flanders, Hainaut and Louvain (Leuven) in the eleventh century. It was the eastern part, which went to the Counts of Louvain, which kept the name in use, becoming the primary name of their much larger lordship. This led to other regions later being named Brabant - in particular, the French and Dutch-speaking areas east of the Dyle, including Leuven and Wavre, which are still known as "Brabant"; and secondly the province of North Brabant in the Netherlands.

The area of the old pagus of Brabant is and was multi-lingual, divided between Dutch (Flemish) speakers in the north, and French (including Picard) speakers in the south. Today the region includes not only bi-lingual Brussels, but also parts of the modern Dutch-speaking Belgian provinces of Flemish Brabant and East Flanders, and the French-speaking provinces of Hainaut and Walloon Brabant.

Notre-Dame de Paris is a sung-through French musical which debuted on 16 September 1998 in Paris. It is based upon the novel Notre-Dame de Paris (known in English as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame) by the French novelist Victor Hugo. The music was composed by Riccardo Cocciante (also known as Richard Cocciante) and the lyrics are by Luc Plamondon.

Since its debut, it has been professionally played in Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, China, France, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, United Kingdom and United States, and has been translated into eight languages (English, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Korean, Flemish, Polish, and Kazakh). A shorter version in English was performed in 2000 in Las Vegas, Nevada (United States) and a full-length London production, also in English, ran for seventeen months. Several songs from the show, such as "Vivre", "Belle" and "Le temps des cathédrales", have been released as singles with a huge success in French speaking countries.