Sunday 16 April 2017

Madhouse diaries : Fort des dunes and first beach day of the year !


We've been so busy having adventures all week that I haven't actually had time to share any of them with you ! Last Sunday, at the very start of the holidays, we had an absolutely beautiful sunny day so I said we should get out and make the most of it. I wanted to go geocaching, the kids wanted to go to the beach, so we decided to combine the two. After a long bus ride (still loving the free buses at the weekends), we arrived at the Fort des Dunes.


The fort was built between 1878 and 1880, following the defeat of the Franco-Prussian War, and had a significant role in both the beginning and end of World War II. In 1940, during the Battle of France, it was used as a "sorting centre" for French soldiers, before becoming the headquarters of the French 12th Motorized Infantry Division. After several bombing raids and a large number of casualties, the fort was abandoned.


After the Dunkirk evacuation, code-named Operation Dynamo, in late May/early June 1940, German forces took possession of the fort and it became a component of the German Atlantic Wall fortifications until the end of the war. 10,000 Germans were taken prisoner on 9 May 1945, of which 3,700 were kept in the Dunkirk area, with many interned at the Fort des Dunes. 


As is often the case in the fields and towns around Dunkirk, there is a small war cemetery, with rows and rows of identical crosses that really bring home just how many people lost their lives here.



There are also a few commemorative plaques on the wall for some of the higher ranking soldiers who were killed here, but they have less visual impact than the dozens of graves of the "ordinary" soldiers.



The kids weren't interested in visiting the fort though (and to be honest, neither was I - it would have been a shame to waste the sunshine in its dingy underground interior), so we headed around the back of the fort to find a geocache.


We spent about 15 minutes trying to locate it, with Pierre enthusiastically climbing in and out of the undergrowth around the trees, but we had to admit defeat.



I'm sure we'll be back another day, so maybe we'll have more luck then. It's definitely still there because someone found it the day after we logged our DNF (did not find).


From here we headed back into the dunes - before getting to the sandy part, it's a lovely walk through tranquil woodland, with sun-dappled paths and constant birdsong.


We saw some "silk bags" in the trees and, on closer inspection, discovered that they were teeming with baby caterpillars. The kids squealed "eeuuurrggghhhh" then stood watching them, totally transfixed !


We soon had sand underfoot so we knew we were getting closer to the sea.


We could make out the dunes but at this point, they were still covered in greenery rather than bare sand.


I wanted to try to find another geocache on our route, over by the disused railways tracks. We went past this strange cubic structure. The kids wanted to know what it was but I had no idea !


There was a geocache listed as "underneath the machinery" but we couldn't locate it. It turns out that on this very afternoon, the geocacher who had laid the caches a few years ago was going round removing them all before disabling the whole series, so the chances are, this one wasn't here any more.


By now, it was heading into late afternoon and the kids were getting impatient for making our way to the beach so I relented and we gave up on the geocaching. As soon as we arrived at the beach, they rolled up their trouser legs, raced across the sand and went paddling in the sea !


There were quite a few people who had had the same idea as us, but the beaches in Dunkirk are so vast that there is plenty of room for everyone. We were down at the far end of the beach too, close to the Belgian border, which is much less crowded than the part closest to the town centre.


Keep on running ! They suddenly seemed to get a second wind.


They ended up quite far away but my camera managed to zoom in on them and I was sitting under a flagpole so that they could find me easily when they headed back up the beach !


After paddling, it was time to build a sandcastle, or at least dig a big hole in the sand.


There was one final thing left to do before heading to the bus stop - buy an ice cream ! It was the perfect start to the holidays and a real fore-taste of the summer to come. Bring it on !


Country Kids

18 comments:

  1. Cheryl, geocaching - interesting concept. Cheers from Carole's Chatter

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    1. It's great fun and takes us to some local places of interest we'd never have found otherwise.

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  2. Beautiful dunes! Eeewww at the baby caterpillars, they give me creeps. The rows upon rows of crosses are poignant. I can see why the kids wanted to go to the beach rather than visit an old underground dark fort.

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    1. Me too - especially as they knew there was a good chance of ice cream ! The caterpillars are pretty creepy - I kept my distance and zoomed in with my camera ! lol

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  3. Lovely dunes.Looks like a great day, been rather wet here

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    1. We've been really lucky all week - I hope it continues for the second week :)

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  4. This looks like a lovely holiday activity, geocaching followed by an afternoon on the beach is ideal. You have such an interesting area to explore and it's great that you're managing to find all these wonderful places to entertain you all. It looks like you've had some beautiful weather and I hope it holds off for more outdoor fun!

    Thanks for linking up with me on #CountryKids.

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    1. We had gorgeous weather for pretty much the whole holidays which was an added bonus :)

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  5. I know I wouldn't have been able to drag my hubby away from the fort! It's always annoying when you don't find a geocache, we've been back for a few. The beach looks lovely, it's so huge! What a lovely day.
    #countrykids

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    1. There are a few caches that I've visited several times and just can't find - those are the ones that taunt me when I look on the geocaching map and want to replace them with smiley faces !!

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  6. Sometimes the areas around a fort can be just as interesting as the fort itself. :)
    Love the old Railway line, Love going for a walk and finding interesting things :)
    #CountryKids

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    1. I love getting slightly off the beaten path and seeing what we find :)

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  7. What a lovely place and intriguing fort. The vastness of the beach is amazing and great for ensuring it isn't crowded #countrykidsfun

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    1. I must admit, we tend to take the beach for granted but it is really lovely :)

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  8. Free buses at the weekends, how cool is that? This looks like you had a great day out, some history and some fun too. Mich x

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  9. The beach looks lovely, and how amazing to find all those baby caterpillars!

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  10. We love geocaching for the very reason it takes us to historic places of interest. #CountryKids

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  11. Beach looks great - sounds fun!

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