Can You REALLY Move The French-Belgian Border By Accident With A Tractor?

Tim is now doing high risk border conflict documentaries.

While crossing from France to Belgium, Tim carried French soil on his shoes which was deposited in Belgium, and France wants it back

I like how Tim is utterly horrified at the concept of trespassing on private property, but is satisfied to sneak across an international border to solve the problem.

“So how do you plan to invade France?” “Don’t worry, I have a stone”

"Showing my negative test to the border" had me cracking up. Did the border accept the test?

I lost it when you showed your negative test at the border. Really funny.

0:50 You CAN move the border between NY and Pennsylvania just by moving a stone. While the border was intended to be a straight line, they marked that line by placing 1 foot square granite markers every mile and at significant roads. As you might imagine, they didn't do a perfect job, and so they vary a bit. Rather than have the line constantly resurveyed and the markers moved, the decision was made to have the location of the markers be the official location of the border. And, if a market has gotten lost, the border then runs on a straight line between the two markers on either side of the missing stone.

7:27 that's not just viral journalism, it's also a perfect example of circular reporting. Someone publishes a thing as fact, everyone else, believing that Someone #1 has properly done their research, then goes on to cite that thing as if it were true; little made up tidbits get added along the way and, sometimes, the circle actually closes, with Someone #1 then citing all those other articles, believing that they had also done their research.

My theory about who moved the stone is, a british youtuber living in Paris ran out of video ideas during lockdown. So he secretly moved the stone just to film a video about it a couple of weeks later. ;-) Love your videos, always very entertaining :-)

8:40 "I can bring you..." B-Roll with a Dacia Sandero pops up "...Good News!" Absolutely beautiful.

I appreciate the Tintin theme when you entered Belgium and Ylvis “Stonehenge” when finding out it’s a mystery. Attention to details is what gives this channel the final push!

The reason why the stone was moved is probably because some hikers needed a way to go over the fence

That’s pretty crazy, but one time someone moved the border so far that Hainault ended up on the Central Line.

I love the theme of the old "Tintin" cartoon in the background!! As a Belgian citizen, I appreciate it greatly :)

As a Brit you missed a golden opportunity to have just left a small Union Jack in the disputed area to claim it, as is traditional.

No video is complete without a Captain Slow reference.

I'm pleased to hear that a major border war between France and Belgium is "avoidable"

Playing the Tintin opening theme as you enter Belgium. I see you're a man of culture.

"Since the 1940s, when, because it's on the French-Belgian border admittedly quite a lot happened." Thank you, Tim, now I know what the attempted snorting of a chunk of banana that was in my cereal up my nose feels like. Spoiler: It's not pleasant, but I laughed nonetheless.

I can’t tell if the moment where Tim says “good news” while a Dacia Sandero is in the frame (8:42) is a coincidence or if it was done on purpose, but I love it.