Camping St Louis is our last campsite in France for this trip, it is a small site, normally used as an overnight stop by most of its customers as it is only 1/2 an hours drive from Calais. We have decided on a longer stay here as we don’t really know this area of France at all, as like most people we just use Calais as a gateway to this lovely country.

The area around the campsite was pretty flat so this was ideal for a bit of exploring by bike, not only are the roads flat but they are remarkably traffic free so this makes for a lovely carefree cycle!

After our “tour de france” on the bikes it was time for a healthy meal with local ingredients  cooked “al fresco”, always the best way to eat when camping!

We visited the town of Calais on a rare overcast day for us on this holiday. Jane had said that she wanted to see the burgers of Calais and I was obviously up for that, only to find that The Burghers of Calais was a statue by Rodin depicting the 6 leading dignitaries of the town that surrendered to English forces in 1346 to enable a siege of the town to be lifted.

I thought the statue looked great, but when you have your heart set on a cheeseburger…………

Where is the clock?………. Oh thanks !

After Calais we drove along  some of the Côte d’Opale which stretches for over 120 kilometres from the Belgian border to the border of Picardy. This was a very scenic drive, however the weather on this occasion was a little unkind to us and we  couldn’t really enjoy the views.

We did take a little stroll along a huge great wide beach, and I saw in the distance an unusual looking object and decided that a closer inspection was needed. It was strange to see the wreck of a ship in the middle of these pristine sands, apparently it as left there to encourage wildlife and whilst I was there a couple of children had netted some small crabs.

This is mussel beach French style, not be confused with muscle beach in California………..!