A grain spirit flavoured with juniper, distilled in the Nord since the 18th century. Drunk neat and very cold after a plate of carbonade, or stirred into coffee.

Joseph Claeyssens converted an oil mill on the Deule at Wambrechies into a genever distillery in 1817, and it still runs one of the last French genievre productions on a near-unchanged process. The spirit became the drink of the region's miners and textile workers, taken neat for warmth or poured into coffee to make a bistouille. It won a prize at the 1935 Brussels international exhibition and reached its peak in the 1930s. In Lille it is the correct thing to order after a heavy estaminet plate.

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