7 May 2025
– Closing The Loop
Miles
driven today = 115
Total Miles
to date = 5,617
We’ve made it.
Our third major European tour draws to a
close as we stare out at the English Channel knowing that by this time tomorrow
we will have travelled beneath it and will be back at our home in Suffolk.
From Ghent
the E40 motorway arrowed us past Bruges and towards the North Sea Coast at
Ostend before sweeping us South West over the French border and past Dunkirk
and Calais. I’d pondered on revisiting
one of the previous sites we have used prior to catching our morning train but
recent reviews indicate that both have had issues recently with migrants trying
to get into vans so our Plan A was to head instead for a campsite in
Escalles. I sent them a message last
night to see if they had space and the response I received while we were
en-route was that they only accepted reservations for a minimum of two nights,
so we changed course slightly for Wissant a little further down the coast.
We are in
the municipal aire which only charges €11 a night and once we were settled we
headed for the beach.
We knew we were on
the right track when we spotted the Hotel de la Plage.
Wissant is
on the Opal Coast, half way between Cap Blanc Nez to the north.
And Cap
Gris Nez to the South.
It was a
chilly 10 degrees when we were on the beach and with a brisk wind it felt
considerably colder so we didn’t loiter and sought the comparative shelter of
the town square.
This hotel may appear fabulously
antique but unfortunately on closer inspection all those exposed beams are in
fact painted on.
In the old
Mairie v Hotel de Ville debate Wissant comes down on the side of the former.
The Church
of St Nicolas doesn’t look particularly interesting but apparently it contains
a crucifix of a transgender Christ wearing a floral patterned frock.
If I’d have known this at the time I would
have investigated further.
Lots of the
cafes and restaurants were advertising moules and frites and we were sorely
tempted but we still had quite a few bits and bobs of meat and dairy in the
fridge, which officially we are not allowed to take back into the UK with us,
so we declined.
So we
headed back to the warmth of the van and got the cards out for a few hands of
rummy.
Not exactly the most stimulating
way to end such an epic trip but we can’t have temples, azure seas and
monstrous platters of seafood everyday or we’d be spoiling ourselves, wouldn't we.
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