After a very windy night the rain seems to have moved on through, though still blustery and cloudy it was ideal for a walk along the expansive beach that is Plage de Calais and then runs on into Plage de Beriot and finally Plage de Sangatte before being punctuated by Cap Blanc Nez.
We join the beach at the beach hut lined start of Calais North – Plage de Bleriot…..
With Tilly keen to go off lead and enjoy some freedom….
To our right is Plage de Calais – the dog ban doesn’t actually come into effect until 15th June…
We enjoy a lovely walk, bracing as we are walking into the wind, for a mile or so until we stop for a while to enjoy life before heading back….
In the distance along the promenade we can see that the Dragon of Calais looks to be coming to life so we take a small detour to watch as it impressively trundles very slowly along the promenade towards us – wow….
A pretty wet and wild start to the day so we hung on until after lunch and were lucky to stay dry and even see some blue sky and sunshine in the couple of hours we were out and about.
Starting our walk with a stroll along the river to the vast and busy sea port….
With huge ferries seemingly leaving and arriving every few minutes and in between all the smaller craft rushing to get through the port and out of their way, if it wasn’t so windy you could easily while away the hours. Instead we turned our attention to the rather spectacular sandy beach – Plage de Calais which butts up to the Port on the west side…..
We spent a while watching this beauty of a smallish tall ship approach and enter the harbour….
Before skirting around the beach (dog ban) and wandering along the promenade to meet the Calais Dragon….
An incredible feat of engineering this 12m high and 25m long – 72 tonnes of mechanical structure offers rides along the promenade whilst breathing fire and smoke. We didn’t see it in action today as it was just too windy to hang around but maybe tomorrow?
From here we crossed the bridge to the town centre – not the most exciting, in fact without the colourful and very noisy in the wind bunting (Pride?) it was rather disappointing….
Though the Tour de Guet (13th C Watchtower) was pretty impressive and the church of Notre Dame likewise…..
A little less windy today with plenty of sun around so knowing we are not in any hurry to move on and the tide is out. we take a leisurely stroll down to Wissant.
This morning with all that amazing exposed firm sand it is the turn of the Wind Karts racing along the combined length of Strouanne and Wissant Beaches….
Crikey they can pretty much fly along the beach in this wind, there was of course the odd kite surfer out on the sea but they are either not as keen to carry all their kit down the beach or in reality as I suspect mostly at work.
Today it is clear enough for us to see the White Cliffs of Dover along the horizon – amazing at 21 miles away….
We could also see that Plage de Wissant does indeed extend to Plage de Cap Gris Nez that we visited at high tide yesterday….
How magical are these tree trunks for retaining the beach (I think?)…
Time to move on and on our way we attempted to call in on Cap Blanc Nez and the iconic Dover Patrol Monument a 23m high granite obelisk commemorating the French / English troops who patrolled these cliffs guarding the English Channel during WWI. However unlike its sister Cap Gris Nez where there was ample parking for all, here the parking was restricted to 2.1m in height – so not us!
Instead we continued and dropped down into the small coastal village of Sangatte where there was motorhome specific parking on the outskirts and took a lovely long walk along the raised promenade and back along the vast expanse of firm sand – just perfect…
It was then just a short hop to our Aire in Calais and time for us to walk into town for Tilly’s appointment at the vets for her tapeworm tablet a requirement of our return to the UK on Monday. The vet was a lovely Romanian chap with excellent English who happily got down on his hands and knees and hand fed Tilly from a tin of wet dog food whilst hiding the tablets within. I think that is the first time she has ever left a vets smiling!!
The weather has improved as the day has gone on, still a fierce wind blowing but also quite a bit of sunshine in between the flitting clouds. We wander briefly into the centre of Wissant a sizeable but probably 50% second home village with a grand central square surrounded by attractive old buildings and of course an impressive church….
We make our way down the side streets alongside a small stream….
Arriving at Strouanne Beach on the eastern side of Wissant. There is only a fairly thin strip of sand exposed as the tide is just starting to go back out but already this is busy with Kite Surfers (with more arriving every minute) enjoying the brisk cross bay winds…
We watch for a while astounded at the distance out of the water these guys can achieve without completely becoming airbourne and lost to the elements – clearly there are no beginners here….
We then fairly well fly along the empty beach with the wind pushing us on and Tilly enjoying chasing sea foam until the white cliffs of Cap Blanc Nez come clearly into sight….
Knowing that it is going to be a tough walk back we don’t venture too far before battling our way back to the village….
A short stretch of promenade leads along the seafront which is still being battered by the tide but may well be sandy at lower tides was clearly the windsurfers section of the beach….
Leading west of the village to the equally long and practically deserted Plage de Wissant which I think at low tides is walkable to Plage de Cap Gris Nez (still can’t make out the grey cliffs!) if you have the stamina and a good few hours to spare….
What a fantastic day a real gem of a find and so close to Calais.
A bit more rain during the evening and into the morning and very windy up on these cliff tops but as we were on EHU we put the heating on and managed to dry out all our wet clothing with the exception of my fleece lined walking boots which needed a little of the later afternoon sunshine and breeze to finish them off. We didn’t rush away but were on the road before midday and at our first stop of the day – Cap Gris Nez shortly after.
To say it was wild is putting it mildly but fortunately the paths were good and solid as we made our way to the closest point to mainland Britain just 21 miles north….
On a clear day you can see the white cliffs of Dover but on closer examination the white blobs on the horizon in the distance were ships but the sea lumpy and spectacular.
The lighthouse is also a sea watch observation point for the busy English Channel with some 400-500 commercial boats passing through daily….
It was not only the wind that was breathtaking – these views along the coast to the west….
And further east across Baie de Wissant (where we are headed later) are pretty special too….
From the point we followed the coastal path down for a closer look at Plage de Cap Gris Nez and the small community of Les Longeres, though disappointingly it was largely covered by the tide….
The grey cliffs are not visible from here but from this beach we get our first look at Cap Blanc Nez (across the bay) and can just make out the white chalky cliffs though we do get a better look later.
With every single cobweb blown away after a coffee break in the ample car park (no overnight parking unfortunately) we make our way the shortish distance to our Aire for the night on the outskirts of Wissant….
Electric hook up is an option here but a chargeable extra and apparently quite complex to sort according to the reviews on Park4Night and as we don’t need it, we didn’t bother. As the tide is high at 3.30 we settle down for a while and have something to eat before venturing out into the wind again and wandering down to the beach. This will be continued tomorrow as I seem to have got myself a little out of synch!!
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