Project 2008/2009 La côte d'opale

Quotation from the book ‘Belgium’ by Victor Hugo

"Etables is nothing more than a village but exactly how I would like a village to be: a community of fishing folk established in one of the most beautiful small bays on the Canal. It was ebb tide when I arrived; you could see all boats in the distance on the dry sand, resembling black and shiny mussel shells. I sketched a few while walking on the sand dunes. Now and then I could see dignified shapes of seafaring people sitting at the fronts of their little houses, waving at us full of pride. The sea glistened in the centre of the bay, full of magnificence and then at once in tatters – like a piece of silver cloth. The heights reached by the sea in the south have a beautiful calm shape. A few big clouds descended upon it slowly. It was a still and huge spectacle.

I was in Le Treport and wanted to see exactly where dunes stopped and cliffs began; a beautiful journey which can only be done on foot along a tiny path. I took a guide with me and went on my way. It was midday. It took me an hour to reach the top of the cliff opposite le Treport. I had climbed over a sort of dyke of pebbles that restricts the sea and protects the valley, and at the end of which you could see outlines of the tall fascades of the Castle of Eu; at my feet laid the hamlet situated opposite le Treport.

The beautiful church of le Treport rose opposite me on the hills, and all houses in its village spread under her like a mass of fallen stones. Behind the church a massive wall of weathered cliffs reached out, with the tops reduced to rubble, and large green flat areas appearing in between. The sea, seemingly indigo under the blue sky, pushed her enormous foam-filled semi circles into the waves. Two or three luggers left the port happily. There was not a cloud in the sky; just beautiful sunshine."