Northern France – and the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region in particular – is considered "the sticks" – a cold and rainy place inhabited by unsophisticated ch'tis who speak a strange dialect (called "ch'ti" in local parlance, and "cheutimi" in the South).

Soon, he is completely won over, eating strong-smelling Maroilles cheese; talking to virtually every local (by delivering their mail, and accepting the recipients' invitation for a drink); playing at the beach; playing the carillon at the bell tower together, drinking beer like a local, going to an RC Lens football match and so forth.

Just when she's ready to go back south, she discovers that she has been tricked when a local tells Julie that the actual town of Bergues is several kilometers away.

When Philippe finds Julie at his real Bergues home, he tells her the truth about the happiness and friendship that the town has brought him.

Just as he is about to say goodbye, he is reduced to tears, proving Antoine's theory on the Ch'tis proverb ("A visitor brays [cries] twice up north; once on his arrival and once at his departure").

The plot was similar to the original: Alberto (Claudio Bisio), the manager of a Poste Italiane office in Lombardy is banished for two years to Castellabate, a small town in Campania.

Unlike the French original, the Italian franchise led to a sequel: Benvenuti al Nord ("Welcome to the North"; 2012).

In this remake, city slicker Evi gets relocated from metropolitan and cosmopolitan Rotterdam to the rural Dutch province of Zeeland.

[9] The CD soundtrack, including the scores of La Maison du Bonheur and Nothing to Declare, were all composed by Philippe Rombi.