Madhouse Diaries : The Tide Is High

The (slightly disappointing) eclipse wasn't the only exciting natural phenomenon on the cards this week. The French coast was also apprehensively awaiting "la marée du siècle" or "the tide of the century", also known as "the big tide", which, despite its name, comes around about every 18 years. Dunkerque spent a fortune on adding sand and barriers to the beach to reduce the risk of flooding last year but the seafront was still on red alert and the flood warning sirens were tested last week (very reassuring - not !).

Well, we headed along the seafront this morning to see if we could see any signs of last night's mega high tide. The sea was definitely out a lot further than usual. Down in the west in Brittany, a few people lost their lives over the weekend when they took advantage of the exceptionally low tide to go collecting mussels and shellfish. In Dunkirk, lots of thrill-seekers went to see the big waves last night but the wind was actually helping keep them back a bit.

We could still see big piles of sand washed/blown up around the benches along the prom though.

Even as we walked along, the wind was blowig a mini sandstorm around our feet, which the kids thought was funny !

You normally have to climb down a bank to the beach about 2 feet below but it's totally level today !

We soon headed back to the car because the wind was bitterly cold but one thing made us laugh - just next to the prom, we found a dead fish that had been washed up, which proves just how high the sea was up last night !