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Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Côte d'Opale
Ambleteuse, les deux Caps, Sangatte, Mount Saint-Louis, Cap d'Alprech with its lighthouse

The Côte d'Opale is a French coastal region bordering Belgium and is situated opposite the cliffs of south-east England, facing the English Channel and the North Sea.
The Côte d'Opale extends over 120 kilometres (75 mi) of coast and is characterized by a variety of landscapes: beaches, dunes, swamps, estuaries and cliffs. It is marked by the presence of two big cliffs situated between Calais and Boulogne: Cap Gris Nez with a hight of 50 metres (160 ft) and Cap Blanc Nez with a hight of 132 metres (433 ft) being the closest points on the French coast to England.
The Côte d'Opale borders the Strait of Dover and is the coastline of the Pas-de-Calais department in Northern France.

Fort Mahon or Fort Vauban is a sea fort situated at the estuary of the river Slack in Ambleteuse.
It was built at the end of the 17th century by the military architect Vauban on orders of Louis XIV to defend the port in the estuary.

Sangatte is situated between Calais to the north and Cap Blanc Nez to the south. Like many place names in French Flanders, the name is of Flemish (Dutch) origin: Zandgat, meaning gap in the sand. The beach is well known for its long rows of mussel poles. When sinking poles or pilings of oak into the sea mud, mussels start to grow on them with great abundance. The application of this phenomenon is called the Bouchot method of mussel mariculture. Along this beach, a hamlet called Blériot-Plage, is named after Louis Blériot who, on the 25th of July 1909, was the first person to fly across the English Channel: he flew from this beach to the White Cliffs of Dover.

The army of the roman emperor Septimius Severus (40 000 men) is said to have set up camp on Mount Saint-Louis before embarking to Great Britain (Roman invasion of Caledonia 208-210). Mount Saint-Louis offers a strategic view over the surrounding area of Tournehem-sur-la-Hem. Nowadays on Mount Saint-Louis you can find the remains of the 15th century chapel of Guemy built by Antoine de Bourgogne, bastard son of Duke Filip III of Burgundy.

The current lighthouse of Cap d'Alprech, le Phare d'Alprech, was rebuilt in 1962 after the destruction of the original lighthouse and now has a spiral staircase, it was fully automated in the late 1970s.