Shellshocked
We'd done Paris in the Autumn and so decided to settle for Pas De Calais in the Spring.
We drove The Beast down to Dover on Maundy Thursday and boarded the Pride of Calais, arriving in France for lunch in the port. We took a quick promenade along the front but soon gave up because of a howling inshore wind.
Next stop was Tournehem Sur La Hem, a quaint village just inland where we had booked ourselves into the Bal Parc Hotel on Pamela and John's recommendation. Nothing much more was achieved that day other than a very pleasant dinner of rustic fare.
On Good Friday, the clouds were still in evidence and so we headed up to Boulogne for a wander around the old town. We walked the walls and found the cathedral and the chateau. There were galettes and glaces for lunch followed by a stroll through the dunes near Equihen-Plage.
Dinner was found in Ardres at the Hotel Le Clement. The hotel was rather like a French version of Fawlty Towers. The waiter/maitre d' pulled on his white jacket when we asked for a table and then huffed and puffed his way through serving us. Huge cracks ran up the walls and across the ceiling, putting the chandelier in imminent danger of falling. The speakers hissed as a French folk song played on repeat and the flowers on the tables were mainly dead or dying.
The meal, however, was delicieux. I had snails followed by monkfish with sauteed ceps whilst Skene enjoyed duck liver pate then quails with endives.
The weather still hadn't improved on Saturday so we visited St Omer. The market was on and so we worked up an appetite looking at the stalls before Skene tucked into steak tartare and I devoured a fish soup and an enormous plate of smoked fish.
Feeling in need of some fresh air, we drove out to Clairmarais where Skene persuaded me to hire a motorboat with which to explore the marsh. We undertook a one-hour circuit of the waterways which ran between market gardens and intersected the canal.
Having returned the boat, we went to pay a flying visit to La Coupole, the first of Hitler's V2 rocket bases. The base featured an impressive concrete dome, five metres thick and designed to protect the rockets from Allied attacks. Fortunately, the architects were over-ambitious and the base was never finished and never fired a rocket. We learnt about the life of the locals during the Occupation and then how the technology contained within V2 rockets had gone on to fulfil a peaceful function in NASA spacecraft.
We came down to earth as we set off in the rain to find the Ascenseur Fontinette in Arques, a boat lift inspired by the Anderton Lift. We then had the good fortune to see the lift's replacement, the even more intimindating Ecluse des Fontinettes, in action. The lock was operated by an invisible lock-keeper whilst the boat's captain played solitaire on his cabin computer.
We returned to St Omer for an enormous fruit de mer. The platter included a variety of shellfish (cockles, clams, whelks, winkles and oysters) and a range of crustacea (Dublin Bay prawns, Morecambe Bay shrimps, crevettes and a crab). We were overwhelmed by the quantity of food and have to confess to not finishing all the winkles. But we still had dessert.
No sunshine was forthcoming on Sunday but we decided to take our bikes out anyway. We embarked on the Chapelle St Louis CycloTour whilst the local residents sat down to Easter Lunch. The roads were deserted and we enjoyed beautiful though clouded views on the countryside as we made our way along the route.
I soon tired having pushed my bike up several hills and we stopped for a picnic of pain de campagne and smelly cheese in front of the Mairie in Landrethun-les-Ardres. Despite the wintry weather, the swallows had arrived and were wheeling around the town square as though they were glad to be back. I felt revived but not sufficiently so to push on to Ardres and so we cut the route short and headed back to Tournehem Sur La Hem via the intriguingly named Louches.
There was still time for tourism when we made it back to the hotel and so we drove down to the Blockhaus at Eperlecques, another V2 base. The slogan of the museum is "If you want peace, then you must know war". But it didn't deter them from selling flick-knives in the shop.
Skene finally showed some enthusiasm for shopping this morning when we visited Cite Europe and the much-hyped hypermarket Carrefour. We invested in some cheese, sausages and booze. And some of the vegetables that I'd seen in the markets: endives, globe artichokes and smoked garlic. We boarded the ferry reluctantly but safe in the knowledge that we'll be eating well this week.
Click here for photos of our French Leave.
