With our hemisphere spinning inexorably into winter, it was time to 'fill the boots'. Having overspent the month already, a cheap local destination seemed prudent, with a chance to test a friend's theory that often what is searched for far away can be found in the local. Thus the much unpublicised two-day coastal flanner from Calais to Bolougne seemed ideal.
Along the Cote d'Opale, Opal Coast, stretches the GR du Littoral, covering a stunning stretch of coast moving from expansive, flat, tidal washes edged with dunes to high, sheer cliffs, under constant attack from the south-westerlys. These winds carry with them the strange weather conditions forming the Opal in the name, a beautiful opalescent light which dissolves the horizon, merging the sea and sky. The tidal flats are the playgrounds for the region's obsession with sand yachting, whilst the cliffs form two promontories, Cap Griz Nez and Cap Blanc Nez (the first ascent of the 2001 Tour de France) between which is some of the best windsurfing conditions in this part of Europe (sandy, no groynes, regular winds and tough waves around the two points, though with some strong currents - damn, I didn't have my board on me!).
Punctuating the coastline are the once menacingly poised blockhausers (concrete bunkers), some the size of the Dutch barns nearby. Now their hulking smooth concrete bodies slide gracefully down the dunes, like some crashed otherworldly craft. One at Audinghemn could launch its shells at England, whilst another inland at Eperlecques, topping a vast subterranean network was to breed V2s and spit them at Britain, thankfully halted before completion.
The coast out of Calais has some cute enclaves of stylish house sized beach-huts fronting the expanse of dunes, which gradually rise into the cliffs. Sangatte is your last chance to decide whether to make it under the cliffs past Cap Blanc Nez (2.5km) before the tide gets you, or to take the high path. Having ascended Cap Blanc-Nez the Dover cliffs, lit from the south, seem almost reachable by lilo while the Flemish fields stretch eastwards. After this places to stop are beachy: Wissant (also a good base for windsurfing) and Audresselles, avoiding the lifeless Ambleteuse. Just before the cranes of Boulogne materialise is Wimeroux, whose northern beach is covered in large, disc-shaped rocks that must be scaled if the tide is rising.
For maps, the superbly accurate IGN TOP25 map of Calais 2103ET and IGN TOP25 Boulogne-sur-Mer map 2104ET are indispensable, whilst the Michelin Green Guide to Northern France & the Paris Region covers this region thoroughly.
Author: Alex Webb
Date: 1 September 2001
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