France is the leading tourist destination in the world thanks to its cities and villages, its monuments, museums, beaches and ski resorts, its culture and art of living and all this nature that invites you to walk or hike activities of all kinds. And if, of course, all these are national or regional parks, the country also has countless other natural spaces, often less known, that are just waiting to be discovered.
Today, head to the Belgian border with the Flanders Dunes.
A typical northern coastal landscape
What are also called the “Flemish Dunes” are a series of sand dunes located along the North Sea, between La Panne in Belgium and the suburb of Dunkerque in the Nord department of France. They are spread over a length of approximately 20 km and a width that can reach up to several kilometers inland. With huge beaches facing them, they form this typical northern coastal landscape that we love for its wild but also unique and fragile appearance.
Which does not prevent the Flanders Dunes from also being a popular place to spend free time, which is valued both for several seaside resorts such as Bray-Dunes, long beaches with fine sand, the operation of yachting on the sand, as well as hiking trails or cycle paths , which allows you to walk along the coast.
And then we are also in the area of historical, cultural and maritime heritage. The history here, like the Second World War with Dunkirk, has left its mark to the extent that memory tourism has been created to bring this past back to life.
Flemish dunes, a place of memory
The Zuydcoote battery and the Dunes Musérial du Fort des dunes in Leffrinckoucke, the wrecks and log cabins in Bray-Dunes and the surrounding area or the Dunkirk 1940 – Operation Dynamo museum – all are testimonies of this past that must be discovered.
Because it was here in June 1940, under pressure from the German army, that some 340,000 men from the Allied forces, British, French and Belgian, evacuated Dunkirk to England in an operation called Operation Dynamo. All this aboard nearly a thousand boats of all types and sizes, more than 300 of which were sunk or lost during the operation. Wrecks, some of which are still visible at low tide at Zuydcoote or Bray-Dunes
Around the Flanders Dunes
Even if it means being on the coast and in the Flanders dunes, take the opportunity to visit the region as well (or vice versa).
So enjoy the coast, beaches and seaside resorts in between Ostend (in Belgium) and this Opal Coast which will take you towards the Somme. Of course with a stop at Cap Blanc-Nez and during Gray nose, both famous for their cliffs and the panorama of the English Channel. And then there are also these two tourist gems of the region, unmissable cities Bruges (in Belgium) a Lille; two remarkable and cute cities to spend some time in, if not a lot…
> Information: www.dunkerque-tourisme.fr