A sunny day in Le Tréport with a surprising ending

Last night we stayed up late, sitting by candlelight and talking about this and that, which we sometimes don't have time for in everyday life. Nevertheless, we woke up today at half past 8 and (at least 2 out of 3 people) were full of energy. Unfortunately, we forgot our everyday masks when we were looking for bread or something delicious for breakfast. So we walked back to Herbert, got the masks and went back to the campsite restaurant. With a little French and a little English, we found out that the guy there unfortunately had no more bread or anything else except baguettes. Well, why not start the day with local pastries. We carried this precious piece (for Karin B. in DD: not under our arm, we have learned that 😊) to the breakfast table and enjoyed it.

After the morning routine, including washing up and tidying up, we started our daily program. We had planned to visit the mentioned elevator again, even though there was a really long line yesterday. But we were lucky, there weren't so many people there today and it went really fast. Since 2006, 4 free inclined lifts have been connecting the city below with the residential area on top of the cliffs, where you drive through a piece of the rock wall, really exciting, who built something like that. The facility, which used to be a funicular, has apparently existed since around 1908. Once we arrived at the top, we had an absolutely amazing view of the town, the coast, and the port of Le Tréport. While walking through the streets below, we already had the impression that there are many small parallel alleys leading through the city, where houses are built next to each other. Very narrow houses, not very tall, and modernization has not yet arrived there. We could look into many little houses and see families sitting at the dining table with friends. It is not important to them to have the largest flat-screen TV or the most modern living room couch, the main thing is to sit together and eat hearty.

From above, the image was confirmed: one house connected to the next, but no sign of architectural uniformity or a balanced cityscape. One house is almost collapsing, next to it is a fully intact one. A little bit of everything. But everything is very small when compared to our homes.

After enjoying the view, we treated ourselves to a cold drink and then hiked back down in search of Kahl Castle - a bunker complex built into the chalk cliff in 1942. Unfortunately, this relic from wartime is not a public museum, but is maintained by volunteers and entry is on private property. Of course, you can call and arrange for a guided tour, but for the 3 of us? In French? It doesn't matter, we found an information board where we learned that this 4-story facility was built mainly by female Ukrainian forced laborers, has 32 rooms, goes up over 225 steps, and all the corridors together are 270m long. A part of the whole structure was not finished back then, but nowadays the volunteers are working to preserve it. Impressive, but also somehow unimaginable...

We then continued down the stairs to the lower city towards the beach. It is covered with countless stones. From small to huge, you can find everything there. Most of them are nicely rounded and it's a true paradise for "hag stones" search. However, most of the stones are too big to take with us. We ventured quite a distance along the coast from the beach, where access is actually prohibited because huge rocks could fall down there (there were also impressively large boulders lying around). The view of the chalk cliffs from below is simply amazing! The weather for bathing would have been great today, hot all day again, around 33 degrees, but no breeze...and we didn't have our swimwear with us. But we still have a few days left and maybe we'll find a few more opportunities.

Afterwards, we walked through the market, which was taking place on that day, but honestly, it's nothing different from our weekly markets: clothes, knick-knacks, and nonsense. That's why we soon returned back to the campsite and treated ourselves to a late snack of honeydew melon. Then shower, play cards, chat, and prepare dinner. Today we had grilled food again with salad and toasted baguette. Just as we finished the last bite, a storm came out of nowhere! First a bit of wind, suddenly stormy, and - when we had put everything away and retracted the awning - heavy rain.

Now we are in Herbert, he missed us a lot too. Driver's seats turned towards the table, feet up, and a glass of wine spritzer to write the blog. The other neighbors outside are frantically packing up their things in the storm, they weren't as fast. But it doesn't bother us, so we have a little cinema from the car window...

Best regards,

Die3Bolis