Dunkerque's character is shaped by its industrial past, its Flemish identity, and two months of carnival each winter. The famous evacuation of 1940 is everywhere — in memorials, in the DUNKERQUE 1940 museum, and in the faces of visitors who arrive with that single event in mind. But the town repays looking beyond it: the port museums, the Art Deco districts, and the remarkable carnival culture make Dunkerque one of the more interesting smaller cities in northern France.