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Up North
A surprise box-office hit, the low-budget film, "Bienvenue Chez les Ch'tis" is France's favourite film of the moment.
The title in English would be "Welcome to the Ch'tis". 'Ch'tis' is colloquial slang for inhabitants surrounding the city of Calais in the north-east corner of France.
The film tells the story of a post-office manager who tries to scheme his way into a job in the beautiful Mediterranean Riviera, but is sent instead to the dreaded, rain-soaked, chip-eating, beer-drinking north.
Dany Boon, the movie's director and writer and comic star is himself a self-avowed 'Ch'tis'.
In part, because of the success of the romantic comedy, tourism has blossomed. Now, according to the most official figures, over a million French, British and Belgian tourists have flocked in the past month to a place which was recently considered something like hell on earth.
The best line in the mini-masterpiece is that when you arrive in the region you cry. And when you leave you also cry.
The key song in the film is the Stevie Wonder hit 'I Just Called to Say I love You'.
Mr Wonder is known in the district as: Ch'tisstevie Wonder.
