Audresselles

Audresselles
Seafront
Audresselles
Location within Nord-Pas-de-Calais region  Audresselles
Administration
Country	France
Region	Nord-Pas-de-Calais
Department	Pas-de-Calais
Arrondissement	Boulogne-sur-Mer
Canton	Marquise
Intercommunality	Terre des deux caps
Mayor	Roger Tourret (2001–2008)
Statistics
Elevation	0–114 m (0–374 ft) (avg. 30 m/98 ft)
Land area1	5.72 km2 (2.21 sq mi)
Population2	685  (1999)
- Density	120 /km2 (310 /sq mi)
INSEE/Postal code	62056/ 62164
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Audresselles is a commune south of Cape Gris Nez in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France.

The commune covers about 2000 acres (8 km²) of cultivated lands, two beaches, and seashore cliffs. Its original name was Oderzell.

History

Between the end of English occupation in 1558 and the middle of the 17th century, Audresselles seigneury included Haringzelle hamlet; today, this is now a forest hiding the former German artillery batteries of Audinghen. This seigneury was owned by the Acary family, which gave some admirals to the French fleet and from whom most of the borough fishermen are descended.

An old fishers village, Audresselles has kept its characteristic features: its long houses with a colored strip along the lower part of the walls, in the village center, and somme villas of the "Belle Époque" in front of the English Channel. Professional fishing families still live in Audresselles, and one of them uses the village sand beach to land its ship. The traditional flobarts (little trunkated drakkars) are still used by the holiday yachtsmen.

Main sights

• The Church of Saint John the Baptist, fortified, 12th century, with large canvas of the Second Empire painted in the Catholic workhalls of father Jacques Paul Migne in the style of Delacroix and a little 18th century reredos.
• Saint-John farm (beginning of the 17th century);
• The coaching inn, rue Édouard Quénu (eighteenth century).
• The panoramic allée Maurice Boitel

Beach and dune fauna

The town has given its name to the blue European lobster.

Birds

Gulls, cormorants, jackdaws, loons, mallards, bitterns, sandpipers, snipes, oystercatchers, herons, curlews, egrets, guillemots, peregrine falcons, swans, and geese.

Marine mammals

Some black-headed seals have settled down in the creeks behind the village since July 2006 and dislike to be disturbed, following the swimmers to the beach. Also present are Orcas (killer whales), pilot whales, dolphins and porpoises.

Flora

Plants of this region are those that can resist the salt-laden southwesterly wind. Species include Lyciet, privet, spindle-tree, eleagnus, speedwell, marram grass and Armeria maritima.

People

• Robert Beauvais, writer and journalist
• Albert Besson, bactériologist
• Maurice Boitel, painter
• Carolus-Duran, painter
• Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse, painter
• Arthur Gilbert, english painter. Paintings of him can be seen in the choir of the church;
• Philippe de Hauteclocque said Leclerc, marshal of France
• Edmond Marin la Meslée, aviator
• Jean Quenu, surgeon

Living

• Catherine Destivelle, alpinist
• Andreas Dilthey, architect
• Henri Dutilleux, composer
• Marc Ashmann, composer, musician, writer, cook
• Frederic Colier, filmmaker, playwright, novelist, and musician

See also

• Communes of the Pas-de-Calais department

References

• INSEE commune file

Sources

• "Audresselles, éléments d'une histoire", éd. Association "Mémoire d'Audresselles"

by Daniel Leunens, historian, formerly maire of Audresselles;

• "Rivages boulonnais", éd. Association "Mémoire d'Audresselles", by Olivier Lazzarotti, geograph (December 2006);

• "Nobiliaire de Picardie", page 1, realised in 1698 by Jérôme Bignon (1658–1725), Intendant (High sheriff or governor) of the province, by order of the king, Louis the fourteenth.

External links

• Photographs of Audresselles
• Audresselles.cod|daily news of Audresselles