Comines-Warneton

Comines-Warneton (, Picard: "Comène-Warneuton", West Flemish: "Koomn-Woastn") is a Belgian city and municipality in the Walloon province of Hainaut. On January 1, 2006, it had a total population of 17,562. Its total area is which gives a population density of . The name "Comines" is believed to have a Celtic, or Gaulish, origin. Comines-Warneton is a municipality with language facilities for Dutch-speakers.
The municipality of Comines-Warneton includes the traditional villages of "Comines" (Dutch: "Komen" – "Comines" is also the name of the village on the other side of the Belgian-French border), "Comines-ten-Brielen", "Houthem", "Warneton" (), "Bas-Warneton" (), "Ploegsteert" and "Le Bizet". They were all transferred in 1963 from the arrondissement of Ypres in the Dutch-speaking province of West Flanders to the newly created arrondissement of Mouscron in French-speaking Hainaut. The five municipalities (Comines, Houthem, Ploegsteert, Bas-Warneton, Warneton) were merged into a single Comines-Warneton municipality in 1977. Since then, the municipality forms an exclave of both Hainaut and Wallonia, being surrounded by the Flemish province of West Flanders and the French department of Nord and not connected to the rest of the French-speaking area of Belgium.
Comines-Warneton is twinned with Hedge End in England and with Argenton-les-Vallées in France.