Once again, here we are sharing a trip we made in France. This time we aimed the northern coast in the name of the Côte d'Opale. We will go through a short trip of 3 to 4 days discovering the seaside towns of Stella, Berck, Le Touquet and Boulogne-sur-Mer.
We will meet with the local landscapes of dunes, beaches and seas but we will also be greeting the local shells, fishes and seals of these maritime experiences.
Day 0: Reach the Côte d'Opale and taste its seafood
On a Friday of May, we drove in the end of the afternoon to be able to reach the Côte d'Opale and settle in Stella plage, our base for the trip. The city is small and an interesting mix of some cute historic houses, some older abandoned ones and more recent buildings. They are organised in streets forming a star, the naming reason of Stella.
We went to a nice restaurant called L'Entr'potes serving great dishes of many kind. We opted for mussels as we are next to the sea, one cream based and the other wine based. If your road is longer than 3 to 4 hours, I would probably suggest finding a restaurant along the way, or even to book a night and split the road in two.
Day 1: Walk in Stella plage and seals watching
Saturday we first went for some pastries at Souris bakery, the best in the area, especially for the chouquettes with cream. The weather was not so bad and we went for a 10km walk around Stella on the beach and in the dunes seeing some goats and sheep. It ended on the beach where we tried to find nice shells without success.
After a break home for lunch, we decided to try and get lucky to watch some seals at low tide. We drove to Berck and the Baie d'Othie and could observe those funny lazy big animals despite the rain. On our way back we did a small detour and stopped at Aux pêcheurs d'Etaples to pick up some seafood and enjoy a tasty meal, at home, made of shrimps, crab crawls and shells.
Day 2: Touquet walk and visit
Sunday was so much more of an holiday day with a lot of sun. We went to Touquet and started with a cute and short walk in the side woods and dunes. We then went through the local market and settled for a salmon tartar and fries in a nice restaurant des arts.
We continued to walk in the beautiful city checking some cute streets and art deco houses. We eventually went to the beach where we could enjoy a bare foot walk and taste a nice ice cream. We enjoyed the sea which wasn't so cold and tried a small surf plank. We also found some nice shells this time and finally headed back home.
Day 3: Boulogne-sur-Mer and Nausicaa aquarium
Monday we went visiting Boulogne-sur-Mer old castle town. We made the tour of the old center, first on the medieval fortifications and then in the beautiful center made of old houses. We found a great and typical restaurant where we had mussels again.
The day continued with the visit of the Nausicaa aquarium. The main activity of the city and the biggest aquarium in Europe is divided in two parts. The first one is essentially one big aquarium with a combination of sharks, rays and colorful fishes that we can see from a wide range of point of views. The second part was more varied with turtles, seals, crocodiles, sharks, etc. It is definitely something to try there for price of 28€.
Closing this chapter, we want to remember the various coastal memories we could forge in the salty water and in the sand. We will definitely come back as it is not so far from Brussels and we still have a lot to explore with Wissant, Calais, Dunkerque, the Deux-Caps and much more.
We hope you found all the useful info from us, and you got inspired and excited about this one!
Enjoy your next trip!
