Nieppe

Nieppe (Niepkerke) is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It is in the Lys Plain and a portion of it is in the Lys Valley (Leiedal in Dutch).

Geography
It is situated by the Belgian border. It is located close to Armentières, 42 km southeast of Dunkerque (Dunkirk) and is connected by the A25 (15 km) to Lille. It borders the Belgian municipalities Heuvelland and Comines-Warneton.

Nieppe has a railway station served by TER trains from Calais-Ville station and Dunkerque to Lille-Flandres station. Its nearest airports are in Merville (18 km) and Lesquin (24 km)

Mayors

 * 1790-1802: Jean-Marc Chieus
 * 1802-1837: Constant Watelet de Messange
 * 1837-1841: Pierre Portebois
 * 1841-1848: Charles Vanmerris
 * 1848-1865: Cyrille Delangre-Salembié
 * 1865-1870: Edmond Watelet de Messange
 * 1870-1871: Félix Gokelaere
 * 1871-1875: Hippolyte Delbecque
 * 1875-1890: Louis Loridan
 * 1890-1898: Hippolyte Delbecque
 * 1898-1906: Hector Pollet
 * 1906-1939: Henri Vanuxeem
 * 1939-1968: Jules Houcke
 * 1968-1972: Renée Houcke

History
In its point of its economic view, Nieppe suffered numerous invasions and wars which devastated the area, especially the profit of strategic position of the heart of the agricultural area and more European productives, its strategic axis Lille-Dunkirk via Bailleul and Cassel, the axis, the today's A25.

Points of interests

 * A local historic museum
 * Château de Nieppe - features a treasure legend, its part and a centennial tree
 * War cemeteries of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission:
 * Nieppe Communal Cemetery
 * Pont-D'Achelles Military Cemetery
 * Pont-de-Nieppe Communal Cemetery

People

 * Line Renaud (born in 1928)
 * Jules Houcke

Other
Nieppe features its own football (soccer) club FC Nieppe and its handball club (team). Nieppe also has a library named after Maurice Schumann, its painting and music school and K'Dane (a Nieppe (Nieppoise) dance school). Miss Cantine was created during the Second World War and was recreated and named on 31 March 2007. It features several funny faces on the solidarity of several Nieppois residents. Opened by Jules Houcke, mayor of Nieppe created and alimented a scholar cantine, opened equally for old people of the commune.