Our Blog - Summer 2024 Trip - Beaches near Sangatte, France

We stayed for 2 nights in Sangatte, which is somewhat of a suburb of Calais. We didn't do any "tourist" things here, but really, it was a relaxing couple of days where Lucy could play on the beach. We rented a small apartment that was literally on the dunes. Here you can see the dunes and the building with the apartments.

The beach there is called "Blériot-Plage", which is named to commemorate Louis Blériot who was the first person to fly across the English Channel, on July 25th, 1909. He flew from this beach to the White Cliffs of Dover in 37 minutes in his plane, the Blériot XI.

Lucy is such a happy-camper rolling in the sand! After not really being at a beach during our first week, she was having a really nice time for the 2 days that we stayed on the beach.

One thing that was odd to me this year was the blue jellyfish "invasion" (as some news articles called it). Lots of jellyfish have been stranded on the sand, a phenomenon that seems to happen every year in the summer with the warming of the waters. They swim in search of microplankton, in the summer coming closer and closer to the shore. But they cannot fight against the sea currents and get stranded on the sand when the tide goes back out. Supposedly they can live for only a short period of time out of the water so most of these were probably dead. I watched a couple as the tide came back in once, trying to see if they would "rehydrate" and swim away, but none of them did.

I'm not sure if I am a horrible photographer or I just really do need a new iPhone (please say the latter!). But I seem to get a reflection of the sun on Lucy in various positions on her body in these pictures of Lucy at sunset on the beach.

Another sunset, but earlier

The Germans built "the Atlantic Wall" of blockhouses and fortifications all along the northern coast of France during World War II. There are a couple Widerstandsnests ("resistance nests") on this beach at Sangatte. These are numbered and named, these 2 being WN 79 "Otter" and WN 80 "Penguin".