Travel Stories - France

"dunkirk" and "bray" dunes

introduction

At a windy station in the Panne, Belgium it’s cold while we are waiting for the bus that should take us to Dunkirk in France. It’s arriving just before we get a new rain shower and the price of our ride towards France makes us smile although we do not know exactly how long the bus trip will take. A little later we see the old customs booths of the border with France and we silently drive into our third country in this journey. Our plan is get out in the centre of Dunkirk and go first to the information centre; we’ve got no idea what’s to do here and what the city is famous for next to the fact of the miracle what happened here during WW2. The bus trip takes quite some time and we drive along the entire north coast - Dunkirk is extensive and we hear from bystanders that we can best get out at the stop "Pole Marine". We see the harbor and despite the lack of old buildings (Dunkirk is obviously hit hard in the war) this looks quite central. We get out and we are pointed in the right direction by some local people.

The wrecks of "Bray" Dunes

After a visit to the information center situated in the old "Saint Eloi" church we are indeed a lot wiser. After having done some shopping in a big ugly concrete colossus in the center and a quick look in the narrow streets around the church we decide to go back (north) by bus to go to the small hamlet called "Bray Dunes". We realize that this is the same way we got here but we didn’t have a choice and probably we can’t do the shopping we’ve done in Dunkirk. We get out in a somewhat dead street that reminds me of a tourist beach town in winter. The plan is to sleep in the dunes tonight, but we do need (drinking) water. Many buildings boarded up and after a long walk to a church and a war memorial we decide to take the road that angles up to this main road towards the coast. Maybe we are more lucky there. We find a small information center; there seems to be a kind of cafe/newsagent open diagonally opposite from here and probably there we get some water and maybe a beer or so.

We find it, take place in a very local place and appearantely is this the only bar that is open in the village. We put our maps on the table ready to make a plan. After ordering a pint we fill our waterbags in the toilet one by one. The plan is to first walk down the boulevard, search for one of the three shipwrecks from WW2 and then walk into the dunes in search of a place to sleep. It is very windy and cold today while we pay and walk out of the bar. War-wreck "Devonia" should be on the beach at about 100 meters from the end of the boulevard. The tide is low now and we walk to the water line in search of traces. It should be an English ship with paddle wheels built on both sides in 1905. In WWI it was used as a minesweeper to serve as a cruise ship between Brighton and Boulogne-sur-Mer. When WWII broke out, it was again billeted as a minesweeper; during the evacuation in 1940 in Dunkirk she was deployed and hit by a bomb on 30 May for "De Panne". She was left here on purpose. Unfortunately, we can’t find her and after walking around for a while and asking for it we are disappointed to enter the "Marchand" dunes behind them. As we continue to wander through the dunes with our large bags with the stiffening sand, the wind is getting less. Via some marked hiking trails we walk past an old German observation bunker but a good piece of forest where we can sleep is missing. Eventually we find a small lake surrounded by hedges and in between we can maybe set up our tents. Very careful - wary of local people and police - we eat our meal here and drink a glass of wine before we go back to our tents to sleep.

Dunkirk history:

Dunkirk got it’s name from a church that was built in the 9th century in a little fishing village. Count Baudouin III of Flanders had the first fortification walls built here around the year 960. In the 12th century the city got so called city-rights. The port flourished through the trade between Flanders and England. Around 1400 new city walls were built whose tower the “Leughenaer” (the lyer) is the only remnant. In most of the Eighty Years' War the Dunkirk hijackers fought on the side of Spain and sabotaged the trade of the Republic of the United Netherlands. Maurits van Oranje organized a campaign to attack Dunkirk, but despite his victory at Nieuwpoort in Belgium he failed to achieve his goal. In 1646, a French army under the prince of Condé (France fought against Spain in the Thirty Years War) was able to conquer Dunkirk after a long siege in which the Dutch Admiral Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp had closed the city from the sea.

At the Peace of the Pyrenees, Dunkirk was assigned to the English Commonwealth, but in 1652 the city returned in Spanish hands. During a new siege, Spanish troops were defeated by a French-English army on 14 June 1658 in the Battle of Dunkirk. On 25 June, Dunkirk surrendered to Turenne, but the same day Louis XIV from France left the city to England. It is still remembered that Dunkirk was Spanish in the morning, French in the afternoon and English in the evening. In 1662 France succeeded in buying the port city of England and on 28 November of that year the city became definitively French. Louis XIV was convinced that the port, near England and the Netherlands and the busy traderoute via the English Channel, was of great importance. In a few years the city was developed into the most important war port in France. The famous fortification builder Vauban fortified the port and had a citadel in the city built. As a result, the population of the city rose sharply. In WW1, Dunkirk was less than thirty kilometers away from the Yser front in Belgium. The city played an important role in the supply of allied troops and was bombed several times by German zeppelins and long-distance cannons (the so-called Tall Max).

During WW2 the city was best known for the great flight in 1940 from Dunkirk of the British expeditionary force for the Germans. The city itself was largely destroyed, and then converted into a fortress by the Germans. With the liberation of France in 1944, the Festung Dünkirchen, like some other French coastal towns, remained in German hands, partly protected by the flooded parts of land in the area. She was supplied from IJmuiden by German submarines in the Netherlands. The population was largely evacuated. Only on 9 May 1945 (one day after the official capitulation of Germany) did the German garrison surrender. The devastation was so severe that only a third of the approximately 30,000 inhabitants could return immediately. Dunkirk had to be rebuilt from scratch.

Evacuation beaches

In the morning a thick layer of fog and dew hangs over the field and beach. We eat something in our little spot, pick up our tents and take the bus back to Dunkirk centre. The museum on the evacuation of the British in 1940 - is located in "bastion 32" - it was here that the headquarters was established by the Allies during operation "Dynamo". We visit the museum and then walk along a piece of canal before arriving at the impressive war monument and memorial. There is also a piece of beach with small poles with rope in between which is used as a memorial of the flight of the Brits during the WW2. Between them grows marram grass. We also see a whole row Allied war vehicles are standing at a parking lot against the beach. There, too, we take a look and gaze at the big harbor further on. Dunkirk has the third largest port in France, after that of Marseille and Le Havre. The wind is blowing like crazy here and we do not stay too long. We pick up our big bags and walk back to the center of the city.

actors

When we arrive at the rather small inner harbor we see a small war frigate. We get talking to what turns out to be English staff and we are invited to come up and take a look at the ship. The men appear to be here for the filming of the movie "Dunkirk" which will be released next year and the boat seems to be original. She has participated in the invasion of Normandy in 1944 and has also been active in IJmuiden in the Netherlands during WW2. "Medusa" looks beautiful and the gentlemen say that because of the bad weather the filming (the locations are largely taken in the south of Dunkirk) have been postponed until further notice. As the trains still on strike in France, we decide to take a bus via "Gravelines" (which we know from the "Armada" during the English-Spanish war) to the Opal coast, Calais.

tips & advice (2016)

There is a train station in Dunkirk at about a kilometer south of the information center (from the centre). There is also a small bus station with a small office for information next to it.

Bray Dunes - Dunkirk: a "DK2" bus runs from "De Panne" in Belgium to the train-bus station in Dunkirk. You can get off at many stops (including Bray Dunes). The price is always 1.40 euros and the bus runs very regularly. It certainly takes a 45 minutes for the entire trip.

Dunkirk - Gravelines - Calais: bus "A" runs from the bus station in Dunkirk to Gravelines. Price is 1.40 euros and it takes almost 45 minutes. There you can change to bus "501" to Calais. Price is 1 euro and this trip also takes 45 minutes. Trains go also there.

Name: Museum "Dunkerque 1940"

Address: Rue de Chantiers de France

Price: 5 euros

Time: 10:00 - 17:00 (01 April - 30 September)

Website: www.dynamo-dunkerque.com

Content (evt):

It is about a 10-minute walk from the "Victorie" busstop to "bastion 32" - the building that was erected as a coastal defense in 1874. During the evacuation (operation "Dynamo") in WW2 it functioned as the headquarters (of admiral "Abrial") of the Allies and French during the battle of Dunkirk. Some 400,000 Allied soldiers were surrounded by German forces that were forced back all the way to Dunkirk on the coast where they couldn’t go anywhere anymore. The evacuation of around 340,000 Allied soldiers to England in 9 days helped the nearby 1400 British and other Allied

ships. After seeing a film of 12 minutes of the evacuation you have the chance to see countless artefacts (material, uniforms, photographs, letters, maps) of the war and evacuation in this interesting museum.