A Roman-founded fishing port on the Côte d'Opale, with a walled old town, Europe's largest aquarium and the chalk cliffs of the Deux Caps. Motorways fan out from the ramp across northern France and the Low Countries — no British transit in between.
Tap any marker for its history, plus the driving time and distance from the ferry terminal. Pan and zoom to look further afield.
Boulogne-sur-Mer
7 stops
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AttractionFerry port
Where to go
Seven stops within easy reach of Port de Boulogne-sur-Mer, with the history behind each.
Family
Nausicaá
5 min3 kmfrom Boulogne-sur-Mer
The French National Sea Centre, the largest aquarium in Europe, holding about 17 million litres of water. Its centrepiece is a 10,000 m³ open-ocean tank recreating the waters off Colombia's Malpelo Island, with hammerhead sharks and manta rays.
Through history
1991Nausicaá opens on the Boulogne seafront on 18 May.
2018The “Voyage en Haute Mer” extension doubles the exhibition area, taking total volume to ~17 million litres.
Designed by French architect Jacques Rougerie (chosen in 1984), the building's silhouette is modelled on a manta ray.
10,000 m³ ocean tank18 m shark tunnelSharks & manta rays
Heritage
Boulogne Old Town
5 min2 kmfrom Boulogne-sur-Mer
Boulogne's Ville Haute is the walled upper town on the hill above the port, ringed by 13th-century ramparts and built over the Roman port of Gesoriacum. Inside the walls stand the medieval Château-Musée and the domed 19th-century Notre-Dame basilica.
Through history
c.39 ADRome runs the port as Gesoriacum; Caligula builds the Tour d'Ordre lighthouse for the crossing to Britain.
1227–31Count Philippe Hurepel, son of Philippe Auguste, builds the ramparts and castle (now the Château-Musée).
1803–05Napoleon masses ~120,000 men at the Camp de Boulogne to invade England, then breaks camp for Austerlitz.
1827–75The Notre-Dame basilica is rebuilt on abbé Haffreingue's initiative, giving the town its dome.
On 16 August 1804 Napoleon held the first mass award of the Légion d'Honneur at the camp; the nearby Colonne de la Grande Armée (~50 m, finished 1821) marks it.
Ramparts walkChâteau-MuséeBasilica & crypt
Nature
Les Deux Caps
30 min25 kmfrom Boulogne-sur-Mer
Two headlands on the Côte d'Opale forming the Grand Site “Les Deux Caps”: Cap Blanc-Nez, a 134 m chalk cliff facing the White Cliffs of Dover, and Cap Gris-Nez, the closest point of mainland France to England — about 34 km across the Strait of Dover. The coast is lined with WWII Atlantic Wall bunkers.
Through history
1922The Dover Patrol Monument, a 23 m obelisk by Sir Aston Webb, is unveiled on Cap Blanc-Nez.
1942Germany brings the Todt Battery near Cap Gris-Nez into service, its 380 mm guns firing across the Channel.
1944The 3rd Canadian Infantry Division captures the Gris-Nez batteries on 29 September in Operation Undergo.
Marshal Ferdinand Foch, the WWI Allied supreme commander, laid the obelisk's first stone on Cap Blanc-Nez in January 1920.
134 m chalk cliffsTodt Battery bunkersDover Patrol obelisk
Coast
Le Touquet-Paris-Plage
32 min38 kmfrom Boulogne-sur-Mer
A seaside resort on the Pas-de-Calais coast, founded as “Paris-Plage” in 1882 and built into a luxury destination by English investors in the early 1900s. Its long sandy beach and Anglo-French heritage made it fashionable between the wars.
Through history
1882Paris notary Alphonse Daloz founds the resort as “Paris-Plage” on planted dune land.
1902English entrepreneur John Robinson Whitley buys the estate and adds luxury hotels and casinos.
1912The resort splits from Cucq to become its own commune, Le Touquet-Paris-Plage.
1940German forces occupy the town on 22 May; resident author P.G. Wodehouse is interned on 21 July.
Author P.G. Wodehouse lived near Le Touquet from 1934 until German forces interned him there in July 1940.
Belle Époque villasSand-yachtingCasinos & golf
Heritage
Montreuil-sur-Mer
35 min40 kmfrom Boulogne-sur-Mer
A hilltop walled town in Pas-de-Calais ringed by intact bastioned ramparts and a 16th-century citadel later reworked by Vauban — though the sea it was named for has long since retreated.
Through history
1537Troops of Emperor Charles V capture and burn the town; its brick ramparts are rebuilt afterwards.
1567A bastioned citadel is begun under Charles IX; around 1670 Vauban adds the demi-lune and arsenal.
1768In Laurence Sterne's A Sentimental Journey, the narrator hires his servant La Fleur in Montreuil.
1916–19The town houses the British Army's GHQ in France under Field Marshal Haig.
Victor Hugo set much of the “Fantine” volume of Les Misérables (1862) here, with Jean Valjean serving as mayor under the name Monsieur Madeleine.
The French Channel port closest to Dover — about 34 km across the Strait — which England captured after an 11-month siege and then held for over two centuries until 1558. It is a centre of mechanical lace-making and home to Rodin's bronze The Burghers of Calais.
Through history
1346–47Edward III besieges Calais for nearly a year; on its surrender six burghers offer their lives and are spared.
1558French forces under the Duke of Guise retake Calais, ending over 200 years of English rule under Mary I.
1816English mechanics smuggle lace looms from Nottingham to Calais, founding its lace industry.
1884–95Rodin's The Burghers of Calais, commissioned 1884, is inaugurated by the town hall in 1895.
In 1347 Queen Philippa of Hainault persuaded Edward III to spare the six surrendering burghers — the scene later cast by Auguste Rodin.
Rodin's BurghersLace museumTown-hall belfry
City
Lille
1 h 20142 kmfrom Boulogne-sur-Mer
The capital of Hauts-de-France, a former Flemish city whose centre still shows brick-gabled facades around the Grand Place (officially Place du Général-de-Gaulle). It holds Vauban's pentagonal Citadelle and the Palais des Beaux-Arts, one of France's largest art museums.
Through history
1667Louis XIV takes Lille from Spanish rule in the War of Devolution; France keeps it by the 1668 treaty.
1667–70Vauban builds the star-shaped Citadelle he called the “Queen of the citadels.”
1801Chaptal's decree sends confiscated artworks to Lille, founding the Palais des Beaux-Arts (opened 1809).
1890Charles de Gaulle is born on 22 November at 9 rue Princesse in Vieux-Lille.
Charles de Gaulle — wartime leader of Free France and first president of the Fifth Republic — was born in Lille on 22 November 1890.
Vauban CitadelleGrand PlacePalais des Beaux-Arts
One overnight crossing away
Hibernia Line sails direct between Boulogne-sur-Mer and Cork — no UK transit, no booking fees. Board after dinner, wake up on the other shore.
