Post It from Camping Les Cytises, Boulogne-Sur-Mer, Côte D’Opale, France. Wednesday 24th June, 2015.

The day started with light showers as we left Belgium and headed along the motorway towards Dunkirk before heading off across country via St Omer and on to Boulogne. We decided to drive through the Caps et Marais d’Opale park as we had never before actually travelled through this undulating countryside and wanted to stop for lunch with a view as it was our 36^th wedding anniversary! As a special treat I wanted to have a lunch from my school trip to France many years ago, fresh baguette with brie, ham and grapes which we bought along the way. As it happened the place we chose to have lunch also accommodated a popular fritterie so we indulged ourselves in a portion of frites to share.

A quick stop for diesel at a hypermarket, which was actually cheaper in Belgium, we arrived at our chosen camp site for our last two night’s mid-afternoon in glorious sun. This site was in the ACSI scheme according to the book at a price of 14€ but because of a dispute it was no longer accepting the ACSI discount scheme card and we paid 18.10€ a night in the end. We wanted to stay here to check it out for using at the very end of October but again found the ACSI published closing date was a week later than the intended one.

It is a well-tended site which looks good, typically French with not high quality services, but the Madame was very welcoming and helpful. Our large grass pitch had lots of space in front of it so it was quite restful. Despite the adjacent train line it proved to be quite peaceful and quiet. Most of the site was laid out with static caravans and full season touring caravans with only a few occupants at this time.

On the Wednesday we caught a bus on the main road in the village of Isques into Boulogne. It took around 30 minutes to get there because the route was around the villages rather than the 2 mile journey direct. At least we got to see a bit for of this old sea port which was the other reason for staying here.

Boulogne was quite good and we had a walk up to the old fortified town with a fully preserved set of ramparts, the Basilica of Notre Dame with a large dome like St Paull's, a Watchtower and the first French Castle built without a central keep. It was a very pleasant place to visit and the walk around the ramparts gave good views of the town within and also the new town of Boulogne and the English Channel.

For lunch we ate at a restaurant in the Place Dalton looking at the oldest church of St. Nicholas. We had stopped there for a mid-morning coffee after touring the morning market that occupied the square and during lunch we were able to observe the local council workers return it to its pristinely clean condition very quickly after the market had closed.

After lunch we took a stroll along the bank of the river, which I cannot find the name of, to the beach where we enjoyed the afternoon sun and an ice cream whilst watching the families enjoy themselves on the beach. Late afternoon soon came and we caught the bus back to the camp site for a much needed cup of tea and a relaxing cat nap to get the best from the day’s sun.

We enjoyed our visit here and it made a good change from our normal last night’s stay at Wimereux just to the north of the town. The only disappointment was that this area does not produce the French Flan I love so much and since we had not been elsewhere in France I was looking forward to having some before I left. I had to settle for second best, Pudding, but shall make up for it in September I am sure. The wildcat striking French ferry workers which had closed the Port of Calais and the Eurotunnel for all of Tuesday seems to have finished and we shall hopefully have no delays tomorrow.

Regards, Roy