We had a very relaxing morning in camp before setting to out towards Calais. We hopped off the auto-route near Calais and took the scenic route from there to Wimereux. The road wound its way along the coastline, offering plenty of panoramic view points. The cliffs, small towns and the farmland that ran almost to the edge of the limestone cliffs reminded us of the cliffs on Whidbey Island, Washington. Our first stop along this scenic drive was at Cap Blanc Nez. There was a memorial at the tip of the cape to commemorate all those that had protected the vital link over the channel between Dover and Calais during WWI. These vantage points along the Opal coast were strategic not only in WWI, but also in WWII. Today's viewpoints are constructed on top of WWII bunkers, which were German fortifications that formed part of their "Atlantic Wall". From one of the viewpoints, we could see a nearby man-made lake. An info panel explained that this “lake” was created as a by-product of the slurry from the digging of the Chunnel and the top of the German bunker was sometimes visible when the water level dropped. These bunkers and gun emplacements were strategically placed to defend the coastline from invasion and we learned that the guns here could fire one tonne shells at a range of 40 km, enough to span the channel and reach the cities of Kent. The bunkers were also the site of radars that could detect aeroplane formations all the way in Kent and thus warn the Germans of an attack. On our way back from the viewpoint, we were looking directly across the road onto the hills on the other side where we could see lots of craters undoubtedly a result of the war.

We got back in the van and headed a short distance along the coast. We walked down to the beach, at the base of the limestone cliffs below Cap Blanc Nez. We took a few moments to look around and noticed that there was a large bunker situated on the beach, just beside where we had descended. Our final stop along our scenic drive was at Cap Gris Nez where we were afforded panoramic views back along the coast towards Calais. Unfortunately, the views weren’t spectacular because it was very hazy out. We walked around the top of the cliff to a couple of the viewpoints and then headed to our next campsite in Wimereux.

The next morning, we woke up to rain and had a lazy morning in camp. We caught up on some laundry and dishes while we waited for an “interview” call from our insurers at noon. Megs took the call at noon, which only lasted about ten minutes, and during which they just seemed to confirm the details we had submitted in writing. It was still going to take them a few days to process the claim so we were definitely frustrated because it had been nearly two weeks now. We had French toast in the van and in the late afternoon, the weather cleared up and the sun was out in full force. We decided to walk into Wimereux, a couple kilometers away, and look for the communal cemetery. The cemetery was confusingly signed (marked as communal, British, East & Ancient) and just as we were about to give up, we spotted the CWGC sign. We were here looking for the grave for Lytton Wilde, Meghan’s great-great-uncle. He died of mustard gas poisoning in the First World War. We were surprised to find a WWI cemetery this far away from the front line and after reading the info panel, we learned that Wimereux and Boulougne-s-Mer formed an important hospital centre from 1914 to 1918. The medical units at Wimereux used the existing communal cemetery, with the south-eastern half set aside for the Commonwealth graves. We noticed that the grave stones here were placed flat in the ground and later learned that this was because of the sandy nature of the soil. It also happened that John McCrae was buried in this cemetery and we located his grave stone, too, only a few steps away from Lytton Wilde’s. We wondered if perhaps if Wilde and McCrae had crossed paths during the war. We soon left the cemetery and walked back to camp, stopping along the way to pick up a chausson. It was actually warm enough for us to not have our gloves and toques on and we hoped that this was going to be a more permanent trend in the days to come.