Calais for the day!

Calais, a big port city, closest point to England full of cruise ships, container ships, auto ferries and site of the Chunnel. Today, there’s a strong wind coming off the Channel making the “feels like” temp much colder than the 50 degrees the weather claims.

Our first stop was the Les Baraques Military Cemetery from WW1. There are only about 1,700 buried here, most from the Calais hospital, they represent almost every nation in WW1: France, UK, Germany, and also the colonies: Canada, India, South Africa, Fiji, Japan, China, Egypt. It was interesting to see the different native languages on the tombstones and the presentation.

We went to the beach and tripped over the monument to the Queens Riflemen. This group from the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) had 300 troops who died, 700 wounded during the defense of Calais in 1940. The survivors were sent to a POW camp, some spending 5 years there.

Leaving the beach we ran into a dragon! The “Dragon of Calais” is also from The Machine Workshop in Nantes, giving rides and blowing smoke and fire 🔥. Sadly we failed to get a picture of the fireball.

Barely escaping our doom from the dragon, we walked into town to find the Tour de Guet, a watchtower started in the 1100s and used for various purposes through WW2. From the Tour we found Charles and Yvonne de Gaulle, commemorating Yvonne who is from Calais and the time the couple spent here during their marriage. Leaving the couple behind we wandered to the Phage de Calais, where we passed on the option of climbing the 273 steps to the top where (on a clear day, which is not today) you could possibly see the English coast.

A stop for tea, cappuccino but mostly to get of the wind then off to the Citadel of Calais.Read more