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le weeKeNd
Alex Leith foregoes the burgers of
Dover for some moules marinières
in pas de Calais
Most Brits who take the ferry to Calais get the hell
out of the area as soon as possible, in order to motor
to more fashionable parts of France.
Strange, that, beca<strong>us</strong>e the most dramatic and
beautiful stretch of the ‘Côte d’Opale’ coast is j<strong>us</strong>t
a fifteen-minute or so drive from the ferry port.
Which makes it fine weekend-away territory for
Lewes residents.
My girlfriend and I stayed in the area twice, to topand-tail
a two-week multi-stop camping holiday
in the North of France. On the first night of our
trip we stayed at a camp-site in Audresselles, a
pleasant touristy seaside village where we had a kilo
of moules marinières each, and indulged in that
wonderful feeling of suddenly being abroad, at the
beginning of a long period away from normality.
Our mood was more poignant eleven days later,
when we returned to the area for our last weekend
of the break, staying even nearer to Calais, in a
village called Escalles.
Escalles is built in the shadow of ‘Cap Blanc Nez’
(White Nose Cape), a vast cliff with an obelisk
on top of it celebrating the solidarity between the
French and English sailors who kept the supplyline
running between the two countries in WW1,
protected from U-Boats by the Dover Patrol.
The cliff looks over a sandy bay, which stretches
ten kilometres eastwards, to ‘Cap Gris Nez’ (Greynosed
Cape), another cliff with a modern lightho<strong>us</strong>e
on the top.
We pitched our tent on the windy side of a hill with
a view of the Blanc Nez obelisk, glad to have ended
up in such a picturesque setting, though rather
worried whether our tent pegs were strongly enough
embedded to stop our bell tent from ending up in
England.
w w w. V I VA l E w E s . C o M
C A M P I N G
By then we were old hands at the sub-culture of
camping in France: you stick to your numbered
pitch, generally make polite friendships with your
neighbours, and regulate your toiletry needs to suit
the times in which the campsite facilities are open.
Each of the eight campsites we’d visited had its
own personality: this one we agreed, though our
‘parcelle’ was rather cramped, was our favourite of
the lot.
One of the best ways of ensuring a good night’s
sleep in a tent is by making sure you are physically
exha<strong>us</strong>ted when you get into your sleeping bag, and
we achieved this on our last full day with a walk of
20km from one cape to the other and back.
The view from the promontory overlooking the
Channel at Cap Gris Nez was one I’ll never forget.
The sky was completely clear, and the white cliffs
of Kent were splendidly visible in the distance,
reflecting the Aug<strong>us</strong>t sun.
We <strong>us</strong>ually take breaks to get away from our normal
life, so perhaps it’s this vivid reminder of home that
makes the area so unpopular with British visitors
(most of the tourists in our camp-site were French,
Dutch or Belgian).
No matter, the cliffs were a pleasant sight, and not
j<strong>us</strong>t aesthetically speaking. They acted as a physical
reminder about how geographically close England
is to France, and Britain is to the rest of Europe,
whatever the cultural differences. And they also
spelt out the words ‘bed’ and ‘roof’, a welcome
message after fourteen days under canvas.
P&O run regular ferry services from Dover to Calais,
which are generally much cheaper than the Newhaven-
Dieppe crossing. Camping du Cap Blanc Nez, Escalles,
open April till November, 0033 321 85 27 38
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