Calais – former destination for booze cruise travellers and current home of displaced people – is not often the featured shot on a glossy tourism brochure. Post-Brexit, the desire to linger in the supermarkets pondering the potential savings of Carrefour vs Tesco has all but vanished, so most tourists simply roll on/off the ferry or LeShuttle with the aim of getting wherever else they’re going as quickly as possible.
But things are changing in the city and around the beach; it’s time for lovers of art and culture to start factoring Calais in as part of their travel plans.
Phase one of a 15-year investment project to restore and reinvigorate the seafront has been completed. There’s now a wide promenade to appeal to walkers and cyclists, with a brand-new large skatepark and several play areas. Wander along the wide, clean beach and watch the ferries sail by, or try to catch a glimpse of the White Cliffs out in the distance over the sparkling Channel.
Calais’s plage is often overlooked by travellers passing through
(Yannick Cadart)
It’s all perfectly pleasant, but what makes this curve of coastline more exciting than your regular plage is its huge resident fire-breathing dragon; you might even have spotted it parading along the waterfront as you sailed into Calais Port. Commissioned by mayor Natacha Bouchart and designed by François Delaroziere (one of the artists behind Les Machines des Iles in Nantes), the 12m-high beast made of steel and wood is a free piece of street theatre operated by four “machinists”, or puppet masters. These skilled manipulators can make the 72-tonne dragon walk, swing its tail, extend its wings, roar, snort, sneeze, spit and breath fire, as well as make various facial expressions. It can carry up to 48 passengers, who clamber up its staircase-tail to reach the balcony on its back and ride it on its 45-minute-long lap along the waterfront.
Read more on France travel:
You might argue that you’ve got a better view of the performance down at ground level, though. Watch the dragon stalk its territory and own the promenade, entertaining its audience on every outing. Each performance is unique: it might take an interest in a passing ship and extend its wings in a territorial sign of defiance; it will probably raise its head up high, let out a mighty roar and breathe out fire; and it will almost…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at The Independent Travel…