Best wishes !

Happy New Year to my readers. The description of the Opale Coast with photos is coming soon.
Océane.

Introduction to the Opale Coast.

To-day I begin this brand new blog. About the Opale Coast. The Opale Coast is in the North of France and faces England. It goes from the Belgian border to the border of the Region Picardie and the department Somme. It is the coast of the Region Nord-Pas de Calais and of the deparments Nord (North) and Pas de Calais. There you have also the tunnel under the Channel, the ferries to England and the three big harbors of Dunkerque, Calais and Boulogne. Dunkerque is the third harbour of France and without the oil transport, the first one. Calais is the harbour to go with the ship to England. Boulogne also, but it is the first harbour of France for the fishing. The three towns have a long history. The island fishers and the terre-neuva (fishing-boat which goes 'til Newfoundland) came from the harbours of Dunkerque and Boulogne. The historic languages which were spoken on the Opale Coast (and are always spoken by some parts of the people) were flemish ( a dialect of dutch) between the Belgian Coast and Calais, and the Picard, a dialect of French between Calais and then to Picardie. Much town names are flemmish, beginning from the name of Dunkerque, which comes from the flemish words duin (means dune) and kerk (means church), so Dunkerque, in flemish Duinkerke, means "Church in the Dunes". So are the names of many churches at this coast, which have names like "Notre-Dame des Dunes", (means Our Lady of the Dunes), and so on...

The official language is french.