Dunkirk

Last Sunday I decided to take a day trip to Dunkirk. I have always been fascinated by the history of World War Two, in which Dunkirk hosted the evacuation of the British forces in June of 1940. In addition to this motivation, there is a scene in my favorite movie/book, Atonement, which shows the chaos and the desperation to evacuate from Dunkirk in a beautiful 5-minute tracking scene in addition to one of the character’s experiences during the evacuation. So, I decided to make the hour and ten-minute train ride to the English Channel to check out this site and soak it in for a few hours.

I arrived in Dunkirk at about 1 p.m., and that’s when I realized I had no idea where I was going. With no map, no plan, and no expectations, I began to wander to try to find the Tourism Office or a road sign or something to point me in the direction of the beach.

The first sight of Dunkirk I saw was the port- there were so many beautiful ships and bridges, which was pretty amazing to see. At the port I was lucky enough to find an open museum and the very nice ladies working there gave me a free map- of course, in English (after asking for “une carte” in French, the first thing they asked me was what language do I speak, so, awesome) and pointed me in the direction of the beach.

The Port

It took me about an hour to walk to the coastline, but, finally, I arrived. The Dunkirk beach was very unexpected- the actual beach was very large, the water seemed so far away. But, it was also absolutely gorgeous and very quaint. Houses border the road and in front of the houses are hundreds of cafés, restaurants, and ice cream shops, which all seemed delicious. They all boasted seafood specialties, especially mussels (very important in France), and sported a variety of colors and names. The houses themselves were beautiful too- each one had a different name and most of them had an interesting design on the facades. Next to the road are a boardwalk, then the beach, and finally the water.

The first sight of the Channel!

The boardwalk, the houses, and the beach

I decided to walk along the boardwalk for a while, just to take it all in. Several people were out walking in couples or groups, running, riding bikes, roller-skating, and playing soccer. The temperature was mild and it was alternately cloudy and sunny, so overall it was a pretty nice day. I then decided to stop for lunch (couscous with veggies and chicken in a baggie!), which I ate sitting where the boardwalk met the sand while watching the water.

Lunch!

High tide, I believe

The English Channel was very pretty, the waves were extremely tiny, and flocks of seagulls were floating on the water and whatnot. Shells are scattered all over the sand- most likely because the high tide came very close to the boardwalk from what I could tell. There were a lot of mussel shells but also a lot of shells I had never seen before: pink, very long and very thin. But I managed to find some very pretty shells as souvenirs throughout my day.

Other than my lunch eating and seashell finding adventures, most of my three hours in Dunkirk were spent walking the beach and sitting on the beach, just soaking in the history, the sounds, and the sights of Dunkirk.