This morning we enjoyed our final breakfast and said “Au revoir” to the lovely staff at the Hardelot Centre.
However, before we headed for home, we still had some exciting things to see.
The first of these was Étaples. We spent time visiting the local market, it was much larger than the one we have in Ashford. It was especially amazing to see the much wider variety of fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as all the different meat on offer (both raw and cooked). We were also able to buy a few more souvenirs, some of us even had a go at haggling and managed to save a few Euros!
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Étaples is a fishing town so as we walked along the side of the river we were able to see a number of fish stalls, again with an incredible range of fish, shellfish and other sea creatures.
Our next stop in Étaples was Les Maréis fishing museum – we were completely immersed in a fascinating maritime universe: there was a huge aquarium, including friendly rays, and we heard lashings of information about fishermen, their environment, their lifestyle and a variety of techniques for fishing. We even learnt how to tie a special fisherman’s knot.
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We also saw a memorial for fishermen who had died at sea, then we ended out time in Étaples with a picnic in a park close to the museum.
After lunch we headed to Boulogne for a super sweet treat! We visited ‘Becasuc’ sweet factory and saw first-hand how their candy is handmade from beginning to end. All of their sweets are made and packaged at the factory: they can produce 2400 candies per minute!
We had a demonstration of the manufacture of both their jellied and hard-boiled sweets, and some of us were even able to have a go. We learnt about their ingredients, recipes and processes, and then (best of all) we were able to enjoy some tasters before visiting their shop.
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Finally, we continued our journey: Calais – Dover – Home xx
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