Plage De Calais

So getting to Calais beach was sorta quixote because the way our driver took us to the beach, we saw the double barb wire fence and the migrants and their tents en route. And no matter how lovely the beach or sunny the day, having driven past the migrant tent city, I couldn’t stop my mind thinking back to the misery we drove off.
So with that in the backdrop of this review, I am now going to just briefly mention my thoughts about the beach at Calais. We were at the one end of the beach where could see the boats coming out of Calais harbor and head across to Dover, and so that was actually quite cool to see. This stretch of the beach was also home to some dodgy looking seaside restaurants, but we ate at one and it was fairly reasonable both in price and quality of food. There were also some food trucks if you wanted a cheaper option.
The beach sand was clean and soft — not rocky or full of pebbles like the beach at Brighton. It was sunny and full of noisy seabirds the day I visited– nothing really stuck out as special or extra-​ordinary, (unless you exclude seeing the white cliffs of Dover in the distance) so just another typical seaside and beach along France’s Opal Coast.

The resounding memory I have of Calais beach was that it takes AGES to walk from the road to the sea. I mean seriously, a good ten minutes. It’s WIDE. And the sand goes through a lot of stages. From loose dry sand that shifts under the tiniest amount of weight, to slightly damp where you get stuck and have to wrench your foot out, to solid wet sand that is warm, to solid wet cold sand, and then finally to the sea. You end up walking across it, staring at your feet and guessing where you are.
Probably the most notable thing about this beach is the constant coming and going of ferries. The port is only like a half an hour walk from the beach and is clearly visible from it, and the ferries come CLOSE. as in, so close you can make out people on board. It’s kind of hypnotic, watching them dock and set sail.
After we lay around for a bit and chilled out, we headed back across the mile-​stretch of sand to a couple of ice cream vans just off the sand and had the BEST ice cream in the world. No word of a lie. I had melon and rose, and my partner had lemon and melon and they came in HUGE wafer cones. I would travel back to Calais for those ice creams ALONE. GORGEOUS.
All in all, Plage De Calais is nice. Probably on a par with Margage but with patisseries instead of fish and chip shops. Calais itself, on the other hand… yeah, stick to the beach and you won’t go too wrong.