Le Touquet-Paris-Plage – Northern France

Having explored quite a few villages and towns while housesitting for three months in Northern France, we were keen to explore the coastal areas.

The day we chose our first venture was on the Squires’ birthday.

What better way to celebrate another milestone than a stroll along the beach. The day started off somewhat hopeful, with a bright, colourful sky and not too many figures below the minus sign. So, with a blue sky and energy off, we went to see what we thought of Le Touquet-Paris-Plage [commonly known just as Le Touquet] beach and town centre.

It is one of France’s oldest seaside resorts. With its pine woods, long, wide beach, golf courses, elegant avenues and quirky timbered buildings in the centre, it’s easy to see why it became popular with Parisians looking for refreshing, healthy rest and relaxation a century ago.

Until F Scott Fitzgerald and friends made the Riviera a popular summer destination in the 1920s and 30s, the beau monde decamped here and to other resorts along the Channel like Deauville, Trouville, Cabourg, Dinard and Dieppe.

On entering the town, we could understand how previous notable visitors thought staying was worth their time. The tree-lined streets made quite an architectural impact. The thatched cottage caught our eye next, and it slightly resembled the Devon and Cornwall homes we had seen.

On a clear day, I am sure we could glimpse the U.K.; it’s so close to here.

The buildings around the town centre are sought after by enthusiasts of 1920-30 architecture. Our first impressions were positive ones.

A few hardy souls, including us, walked along the beach using the man-made walkway.

With a high tide when we arrived, we were surprised to find a great beach to walk along. During low tide, a local lad told us that it goes out quite a long way, and it is possible to obtain some crabs. We took his word for it as we weren’t going to be able to stick around to find out, nor did we have any inclination to do crabbing on a 1deg Friday morning in January.

After that brassing experience, we thought to ourselves

“Where on earth is the nearest cafe?”.

So off we went to find it. We saw a quaint cafe called “Elizabeth’s” selling cakes from England a few blocks away. Ok, our first reaction n made us feel a wee bit disappointed. Then, returning to the memory bank, we remembered we hadn’t been disappointed with an English cake or slice. With that thought, we entered as we were cold and needed more caffeine than cake.  We were not disappointed and enjoyed the coffee and the conversation with the coffee maker.

With a town reliant on weekend visitors and good weather guests, it was reasonably busy, with quite a few shops open. Next weekend, there is a motorbike race on the beach, so the place will be “pumping”, according to our local advisor.   It was a busy event and was in such a contrast to our previous visit.

Now that we knew what was there, we returned a few times with Louie and Nellie, who enjoyed the fresh sea air just as much as we did.  They certainly lap up the freedom that comes with a nearly deserted beach.