48 hours around Cap Gris-Nez

Boulogne... sur mer is not a popular destination. When they leave Boulogne (in the Hauts-de-Seine department) for the Côte d'Opale, people from the Paris region like to spend their time in Le Touquet and Hardelot, and stroll through Montreuil, enjoying the peace and quiet of the woods around the Canche and Authie valleys. Twenty minutes from Le Touquet, Boulogne-sur-Mer is a city on a human scale, with just over 40,000 inhabitants, and the starting point for a remarkable walk, wild and luminous, to Cap Gris-Nez. Panoramic views over the silvery English Channel are superb, and hikers will be delighted by these majestic landscapes. Boulogne-sur-Mer is four towns in one, to be visited according to time and circumstance. The fortified upper town is the most touristic, with its lively Place de l'Hôtel-de-Ville, its old houses around Rue de Lille, which leads to the Basilique Notre-Dame and its magnificent crypt, one of the largest in France, and the well-preserved Château Comtal, home to the Musée de Boulogne. Back down the Grand-Rue, you'll find the lower town, with its shops and quiet life for the Boulogne of everyday life. And then, on the other side of the Liane, there's all the port activity, stretching from the Capécure district to Le Portel, a huge succession of docks and sheds that remind us that Boulogne is France's leading fishing port, handling 35,000 tonnes of fish a year. Boulogne fishing" is renowned throughout the country, for all types of fish, from noble and blue fish to shellfish and crustaceans, especially shrimp and lobster. Last but not least, there's the Boulogne of maritime leisure, with its large, popular beach and its National Sea Center, Nausicaá, just outside town and on the edge of the beach. A must-see for everyone, with Europe's largest aquarium, 58,000 marine animals and a wide range of activities. A little further north, along the coast, Wimereux is the "chic suburb". In Boulogne, they scale fish; in Wimereux, they sail sand yachts. And yet, as always in the Nord region, diversity takes over, with the Groseilles and the Le Quesnoys - the two families who are pitted against each other in the 1988 film La vie est un long fleuve tranquille - living side by side. As soon as the weather's fine, you can take a stroll on the beaches, follow the hiking trails, visit the Second World War sites, including the 39-45 museum in Ambleteuse, or go as far as Audresselles, a small town that gets crowded in summer and is famous for its lobsters, and as far as Audinghen, for the Maison du Site des Deux-Caps, which gives you all the possibilities for exploring the region. Finally, we reach the exceptional site of Cap Gris-Nez, at the closest point to the English coast, where you can breathe in the iodized air and sing a Raoul de Godewarsvelde refrain with a pint of bière du Nord. And while there aren't many fine dining establishments on this part of the coast, there are plenty of cosy estaminets where Flemish welsh rubs shoulders with fish and chips, beer-battered rabbit, shrimp croquettes and maroilles pie.