Camiers, France: travel guide to the Opal Coast resort of Sainte-Cécile and its wartime history

Camiers is a commune on the Opal Coast (Côte d'Opale) in the Pas-de-Calais department of northern France, in the historic Boulonnais. A seaside resort just north of the Canche estuary, it is made up of the inland village of Camiers and the beach resort of Sainte-Cécile-Plage, set among one of the finest stretches of dunes and sandy shore in the region.

For travellers searching for Camiers, Sainte-Cécile-Plage, the Opal Coast or beaches near Le Touquet, the commune offers wide sands, protected dunes and a poignant chapter of First World War history.

The coast and beaches

Camiers spreads from a calcareous plateau down through dunes to the sea, with three sandy beaches, Sainte-Cécile, the Chemin des Bateaux and Saint-Gabriel, backed by a dune belt of around 750 hectares stretching towards the bay of the Canche. The resort grew from the late 19th century, when affluent British and French visitors came for sea-bathing, and Sainte-Cécile-Plage proper opened in 1936. Today it is a quiet, family-friendly destination for walking, watersports and nature.

History

Local tradition tells colourful tales of Julius Caesar sheltering his fleet on these shores, but Camiers's most significant history is more recent. During the First World War it formed part of the vast British base and hospital complex centred on nearby Étaples; the hospitals extended north into Camiers, which held around 17,000 beds, and it was here that the first Harvard medical unit of American volunteer doctors set up in 1915. This wartime past links the town to the great Commonwealth memorials of the Opal Coast.

Practical information

Camiers lies about 17 kilometres south of Boulogne-sur-Mer and directly beside Étaples and the elegant resort of Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, just across the Canche estuary. It has its own railway station and sits close to the A16 motorway, making it an easy stop on a tour of the Opal Coast.