Côte d'Opale (5): Summary

Some of French classics first:

 

2CV

Gallus

Un tracteur à la mer

 
It was a very nice trip, even though the weather and someone's bad behaviour didn't let us see all the things we planned, like Saturday's market on Place Dalton in Boulogne-Sur-Mer, pedal-train (Rando-Rail) and the marshland near Saint-Omer. All locations (those seen, not seen and car parks) are marked on the map.
There are 1:25000 maps available locally, but I would recommend them only for walking/cycling - for car driving 1:150000 maps from Michelin Departments series is perfectly fine (I saw them available at Eurotunnel terminal in Folkestone too).

We stayed at l'Ete Indien camping: it offers several types of accomodation, from place for camper only, through camping homes in diferent sizes to indian tents. Car can be parked next to a home, there is a restaurant/bar, swimming pool and playground on site. Camping home, even though tiny, was equipped in all you need to survive: fridge, hob, pans, plates, cutlery, TV, shower, there is free WiFi as well. Just next to, there is a riding school, it is not far to walk to the sea (although on top of the cliff, not to a beach), Wimereux is in short walking distance so one can have dinner with drinks.

Apart from smelly cheeses and sausages, we brought also some liquid trophies: amongst them unfortunately only cidre (this one even 'cidrier', but never cider ;) was of local origin, all the beers are Dutch.

 

Our carrier back in homeland:

 

And that's it for Côte d'Opale Tour 1-4/06/2013

Côte d'Opale (4): Les trains

The camping site we stayed in was located next to the railway line - la ligne côte d’Opale or from timetable point of view line 11/12 (Paris - Boulogne - Calais - Hazebrouck - Lille). It serves mostly local stopping trains, but there are also fast services including TGV. There is some goods traffic too,but I didn't manage to catch any goods train.

 02.06.2013 TER42931 16.12 Calais-Ville - Étaples-le-Touquet exits the tunnel under Boulogne-sur-Mer's Upper Town on the way to the main station

 02.06.2013 unidentified TGV enters the tunnel under Boulogne-sur-Mer

 02.06.2013 TER42359 20.36 Étaples-le-Touquet - Calais-Ville passes our camping site in Honvault

03.06.2013 TER42629 7.48 Calais-Ville - Boulogne-Ville at Honvault

03.06.2013 TER48865 16.24 Amiens - Calais-Ville crossing the viaduct in Wimereux

 03.06.2013 TER48867 17.39 Calais-Ville - Amiens crossing the viaduct in Wimereux

 03.06.2013 TGV7290 18.27 Boulogne-Ville - Lille Europe  259 km from Paris

 03.06.2013 TER42335 18.24 Étaples-le-Touquet - Calais-Ville at Honvault

03.06.2013 TER42335 18.24 Étaples-le-Touquet - Calais-Ville meets TGV7265 17.54 Lille Europe - Rang-du-Fliers-Verton

 03.06.2013 TGV7265 17.54 Lille Europe - Rang-du-Fliers-Verton at Honvault

 04.06.2013 TGV7513 8.54 Lille Europe - Boulogne-Ville crossing the viaduct in Wimereux

04.06.2013 TGV7513 8.54 Lille Europe - Boulogne-Ville at Honvault

 04.06.2013 TER42634 9.47 Boulogne-Ville - Calais-Ville at Honvault

  04.06.2013 Wimille-Wimereux station: TER42634 9.47 Boulogne-Ville - Calais-Ville meets TER48838 9.29 Calais-Ville - Amiens

 04.06.2013 TER42634 9.47 Boulogne-Ville - Calais-Ville crossing the viaduct in Wimereux

 04.06.2013 TER48838 9.29 Calais-Ville - Amiens at Honvault

 04.06.2013 TGV7546 10.03 Boulogne-Ville - Lille Europe passing indian tents of camping at Honvault

04.06.2013 TGV7546 10.03 Boulogne-Ville - Lille Europe

Côte d'Opale (3): Boulogne-sur-Mer

We visited Boulogne-sur-Mer three times: there is plenty of things to see and do, and it is easy to achieve thanks to large public free of charge car parks close to the major attractions.
The longest walk we had on Sunday and walking along river Liane towards the port we happened to be suporters for local rowing competition

The ferry terminal is now disused and looks like an abandoned cosmodrome

The port authority building matches the cosmic theme

Luckily the entrance to the port is purely marine romantic

One of the main attractions of Boulogne-sur-Mer is Nausicaa - National Sea Experience Centre

We would go there in case of bad weather, but thanks to large windows we could spot some seals even from the pavement, still enjoying sunny day.

The main beach is sandy and is very wide, even at high sea level, and extends far with low tide.
I'm sure during the season it is packed with people, but at this time of the year it was a kingdom of iceboats (on sand - sandboats?)

The upper town is worth visiting not only because of the oldest buildings in Boulogne, but also it offers plenty of places to eat as well as round walk along the city wall. The Notre Dame cathedral is somehow disapointing, as it is really hard to be seen as whole, and especially on the front there is only a narrow street, rather than a decent square.

As a place of long and rich history, there are many monuments

The Column of the Grande Armée overlooks the city