lighthouse

Tuesday 2nd June 2026 – moving further north to Le Portel….

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Well this is not on – we awoke this morning to the pitter patter of rain, to be fair the BBC weather app has been telling me that it has been raining on and off for several days but even so. It did ease off just after 9 so we scurried out for a quick “essentials” walk and then loitered in the van until around 11.30 as we are not travelling far.

After a quick (final) trip to the supermarket, we drove the short distance to Le Portel a coastal town neighbouring Boulogne and were soon settled into our Aire for the next couple of nights. Mid afternoon the sun came out to play and though pretty blustery we set out for a nice walk along the coastal path which passes very close to the Aire. Heading south we were greeted with spectacular views towards Boulogne Port in the north and out towards the ruins of Fort de l’Heurt built on a rocky islet by Napoleon in the early 1800’s with the Germans adding an anti-aircraft platform to the top during WWII….

A lovely long stretch of white sandy beach running from below the centre of town to the Port of Boulogne….

The central part of the beach is not open to dogs from 1st May so instead of going down we continued along the coastal path passed the town to the unusual light house perched up high on the cliffs…

We continued along the coast a bit further but were getting quite battered by the winds so soon decided to make our return….

Taking a little wander through the tidy but fairly unremarkable village….

One thing that really struck a chord with us was this memorial to all those lost at sea from 1877 to 1995 – I’m not sure how many but way too many and many of them in their early teens. I couldn’t find anything out about it so not sure if they were all local but you could see incidences of 3 or 4 members of the same family being lost – so sad and reminiscent of the many memorials we have found on our travels around the UK coastline – RIP….

With the cobwebs well and truly blown away and our hunger peaking we retruned to the van for the evening.

Today’s stats:

  • Miles driven – 22
  • Miles walked – 5
  • Beaches – 1
  • Groceries – £29.43
  • O/N – £13.79

Saturday 4th April 2026 – a walk up to the Phare du Camarat….

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At the risk of sounding a little boring, it was yet another beautiful day here by Plage de Pampelonne….

All the big guns were out to play over the Easter weekend with various gin palaces arriving in the bay and shuttling over to the rather expensive and in some cases quite elitist beach restaurants and bars (though we are at the quieter end of the beach) and plenty of other craft scudding across the bay. I haven’t seen many people braving the rather chilly waters just plenty of paddlers like me and I’m not sure how good these waters are for swimming as the beach seems to shelve quite dramatically. Anyhow we spent a pleasant few hours on the beach just watching and in Tilly’s case, collecting driftwood and creating a little burrow to lie in, enjoying the cooler sand underneath, before returning to the van for something to eat and then heading back out in the cooler late afternoon sunshine for a walk up to Phare de Camarat….

It was a pleasant walk up a mostly leafy lane, having initially walked around the edge of rows and rows of vines….

It was lovely to be walking and surrounded by wild french lavender, though surprisingly not as fragrant as I would have expected….

Just beyond the lighthouse was a viewing point affording spectacular birdseye view of Bonne Terrasse and Plage de Camarat and then beyond to Plage de Pampelonne with snow capped mountains in the far distance – a truly beautiful and peaceful walk….

Today’s stats;

  • Miles walked – 7
  • Beaches – 2
  • O/N – £20