Greece Part 13 - The Journey Home - North France

Friday 15^th July

All good things come to an end!

With our ferry crossing back to the UK booked for Sunday morning today we needed to move north.

An early start gave us a full day to get up to the Channel and the campsite we had booked near Calais.

From the campsite we stayed in France as we took the A35 to Strasbourg where we joined the A4 which took us to Metz. From Metz we took the A31 which became the A31 when we crossed into Luxembourg. In Luxembourg the A3 became the A7 and then route 15. When we crossed in to Belgium, route 15 became the N4 and took us to Brussels. We left the ring road around Brussels and joined the E40 which took us right up to the Channel coast and only became the A16 when we crossed back into France near Dunkirk. The A16 took us towards Calais, but just before arriving there we turned off at Craywick and turned back inland to find the campsite where we would stay for the next two nights.

Once again we had used Pitchup to find and book a campsite.

Camping les Dondaines is situated beside the Canal de la Haute Colme a few miles north of Watten and roughly 23 miles from Calais and 470 miles from our starting point in Breisach

We planned to stay for two nights as we had driven all day today and we would have to drive all day on Sunday from Dover to Glasgow.

We found the site without any trouble and after parking Tra Bhui on a vacant pitch near the gate we chose our own pitch before making a trip to a nearby supermarket in Watten to duty dinner.

Saturday 16^th July

With nothing planned for today and not wanting to drive far we set out to explore nearby St Omer which had been around since the 7^th Century and therefore we though should be worth a visit.

Parking near the town centre we only had a short walk until we were in the town itself.

The first building (and only building of note) that we came to was the cathedral. Constructed almost entirely in the 13th, 14th and centuries it has a heavy square tower finished in 1499 which surmounts the west portal.

Kathleen decided that as it was open she would go inside while I waited outside. Kathleen disappeared for what appeared to be an inordinate length of time I decided to go in and see what she was doing.

Having retrieved Kathleen we wandered further into town until we came to the pedestrianised town centre. This was really just what you would expect in a small town in France. Lots of shops and a Saturday market selling fresh product and lots of cheap poorly made clothes and other assorted junk.

Having seen enough of St Omer we briefly contemplated going to visit a museum, but decided instead to drive across to Boulogne as the campsite owner had told us that the old part of town was the “must see” thing in this area.

Arriving in Boulogne just before lunch we parked the car beside the old town decided to sea the sea front first and find some lunch before exploring further. As we walked down the steep hill towards the sea side hoping to find somewhere for lunch all we found was a not very nice sea side town full of English holiday makers and an assortment of English and Irish branded pubs.

Time to turn around!

Climbing back up to the car by a slightly different route we came to the walled perimeter of the old town of Boulogne which now sits in the middle of the new town of the same name.

Boulogne was the major Roman port for trade and communication with Britain. After a period of Germanic presence following the collapse of the Roman Empire, The area was fought over by the French and the English, including several English occupations during the course of the Hundred Years War. Boulogne was again occupied by the English from 1544 to 1550. In 1550, The Peace of Boulogne ended the war of England with Scotland and France. France bought back Boulogne for 400,000 crowns. A culture of smuggling was present in the city until 1659, when French gains in Flanders from the Treaty of the Pyrenees moved the border northwards.

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An important Count, Eustace II, assisted William the Conqueror in his conquest of England. His wife founded the city's Notre Dame Cathedral, which became a site of pilgrimage from the 12th century onwards, attended by fourteen French kings and five of England.

Boulogne was an important whaling centre prior to 1121, after which the town survived on herring.

The 19th century was a prosperous one for Boulogne, which became a bathing resort for wealthy Parisians after the completion of a railway line to the French capital.

Boulogne, was one of the three base ports most extensively used by the Commonwealth armies on the Western Front throughout the First World War. It was closed and cleared on the 27 August 1914 when the Allies were forced to fall back ahead of the German advance, but was opened again in October and from that month to the end of the war.  

On 22 May 1940 during the Battle of France, two British Guards battalions and some pioneers attempted to defend Boulogne against an attack by the German 2nd Panzer Division. Despite fierce fighting, the British were overwhelmed and the survivors were evacuated by Royal Navy destroyers while under direct German gunfire.

On 15 June 1944, 297 planes (155 Avro Lancasters, 130 Handley Page Halifaxes, and 12 De Havilland Mosquitos) of the Royal Air Force bombed Boulogne harbour to suppress German naval activity following D-Day.

Some of the Lancasters carried Tallboy bombs, and as a result, the harbour and the surrounding area were completely destroyed. In August, 1944 the town was declared a "fortress" by Adolf Hitler, but it succumbed to assault and liberation by the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division in September.

In one incident, a French civilian guided the Canadians to a "secret passage" leading into the walled old town and by-passing the German defenders.

We walked through the old town before climbing up on to the still intact town walls. Walking right around the old town on top of the walls allowed us to enjoy the views over Boulogne and the surrounding countryside.

Having not stopped to eat in Boulogne we tried in vain to find somewhere on the way back to the campsite, but our detours through villages along the way failed to uncover anywhere so once again it was back to the supermarket in Watten.

To make the most of our final day we went for a reasonable walk making a loop of the Canal de la Haute Colme crossing it in the north by an easily accessible road bridge - Pont l'Abbesse and a not so accessible road bridge in the south at Watten. The 8 mile walk allowed us to give our legs a final stretch before travelling on Sunday and gave us an appetite for our dinner back at the campsite

Sunday 17^th July

A very early start saw us leave the campsite at 05.45 hrs. and arrive at the ferry in Calais just after 06.45 hrs. in plenty of time for our 08.40 hrs. crossing. 

The weather was grey which may have been fitting as this was the final day of what had been a 4 month adventure.

We disembarked from the P&O Ferry Pride of Burgundy, at 9.30 in Dover. And just before 19.00 hrs. Tra Bhui was back home again after a 500 mile journey from Dover.