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The Jewish Chronicle

Boulogne: Channelling a touch of French chic

With a new crossing from Dover, Boulogne is well worth a fresh look, says Sharron Livingston.

August 6, 2009 10:01
Boulogne’s cathedral: a prominent landmark in the beautiful, walled Old Town

BySharron Livingston, Sharron Livingston

4 min read

Earlier this summer, I was milling around Boulogne’s farmers’ market at Place Dalton, enjoying the hustle of the traders, practising my Franglais and rubbing shoulders with the locals. Business was brisk, the atmosphere vibrant and the steeple of the 13th-century St Nicolas church (the oldest in town) located in the hub of the market, glowed in the morning sun.

I took pictures as euros changed hands for farm-fresh cheese, home-made honey, jams, fish soup, strings of garlic, chicory, fish, meat, vegetables and flowers. And as the Anglaise snapped away, market traders stopped to smile at the camera.

Brits have been visiting this pretty coastal town for so long that the Boulognaises are used to having us around and have even come to rely on cross-Channel tourism to bolster their coffers. Hoverspeed stopped operating on the Dover-Boulogne route in 2006, but when Speedferries took up the mantle later that year, a collective sigh of relief could be heard across the town.

In January 2009, Speedferries were forced to stop operating and all seemed lost until L D Lines took over the route in May 2009 with a new dynamic fleet. Their newest offering, the Norman Arrow, sails from Dover’s Eastern docks and, in just over an hour, passengers are in the heart of Boulogne, thanks to the port’s location at the foot of the town centre.