Tourcoing

Tourcoing is a city in northern France, on the border with Belgium, and a commune of the Nord department in the Hauts-de-France region. It lies north-northeast of Lille and directly beside Roubaix, and it is the chief town of two cantons. With about 99,000 inhabitants it is the third largest city of Hauts-de-France by population. Tourcoing belongs to the Metropole Europeenne de Lille, a metropolitan area of more than 1.1 million people that also includes Lille, Roubaix and Villeneuve-d'Ascq, and it forms part of a wider cross-border conurbation with the Belgian cities of Mouscron, Kortrijk and Tournai. That grouping became a European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation in January 2008. Tourcoing was the site of the Battle of Tourcoing on 18 May 1794, a French victory over British and Austrian forces during the French Revolutionary Wars. Its landmarks include the neo-Gothic Church of St Christopher with its tall bell tower, the Hospice de Havre founded in 1260, and a botanical garden.