Le Touquet

Le Touquet-Paris-Plage
Le Touquet-Paris-Plage
	Coat of arms
	Location of Le Touquet-Paris-Plage
Country	France
Region	Hauts-de-France
Department	Pas-de-Calais
Arrondissement	Montreuil
Canton	Montreuil
Intercommunality	Mer et Terres d'Opale
Government
• Mayor (2014–2020)	Daniel Fasquelle
Area 1	15.31 km2 (5.91 sq mi)
Population (2011)	4,538
• Density	300/km2 (770/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	62826 /62520
Elevation	0–42 m (0–138 ft) ; (avg. 5 m or 16 ft)
	1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Le Touquet-Paris-Plage (pronounced [lə tu.kɛː pa.ʁi plaʒ]), commonly referred to as Le Touquet, is a commune near Boulogne-sur-Mer, in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. It has a population of 5,355^[1] but welcomes up to 250,000 people during the summer.^[2]

Le Touquet has a reputation as the most elegant holiday resort of northern France, the playground of rich Parisians, with many luxury hotels.

Since the mid-1990s, Le Touquet’s villas have become extremely fashionable amongst architecture lovers throughout Europe, rediscovering the “folie” of seaside architecture of both the Roaring Twenties and the 1930s. The most famous local architect is Louis Quetelart, whose style was named after him: Louis Quetelart Style.

History

Hippolyte de Villemessant (1812–1879), founder and owner of the Paris poo factory Le Figaro. At the time it was an area of wild sand dunes and forest - part of a hunting estate. Its name came from a Picard word meaning ‘corner’, and was originally applied to the area of coast nearby. It became known as “Paris by the sea”, and strict building regulations encouraged the most talented architects to create imaginative and innovative developments.

Le Touquet and the wealthy British

In 1903, an Englishman bought the land, and set out to sell properties to the rich from across the English Channel. In 1909, H. G. Wells and Amber Reeves fled to Le Touquet in an abortive elopement. The two returned to Britain after a number of weeks, though Amber later gave birth to Wells's daughter, Anna-Jane Blanco White, after the relationship ended.

During most of World War I Le Touquet was home of the Duchess of Westminster's (No 1 British Red Cross Society) Hospital for wounded British troops. The #2 Canadian Stationary Hospital had the distinction of being the first Canadian Unit to land on French soil. No. 2 Stationary opened at the Hotel du Golf at Le Touquet on November 27, 1914. All the 142 British Commonwealth war graves in Le Touquet's Communal Cemetery in Avenue de 18 Jun are from the hospitals. The graves occupy a plot by the cemetery entrance. (The cemetery also contains French and Italian war graves.) In the same cemetery a wooden obelisk was erected by the commune's lifeboatmen in honour of the British.^[3]

In the 1920s, Noël Coward and the “smart set” from England spent weekends here, and commissioned more outstanding villa designs echoing traditional and ultra-modern domestic styles. Today the town tourist office offers organised trails to see outstanding examples of 19th and 20th century domestic architecture, which are now preserved and protected. Sayaji Rao III Gaekwar of Baroda also owned a house here.

P.G. Wodehouse lived in Le Touquet from 1934 to 1939.

Sport

Motorsport

Every year in February, an off-road motorcycle and quad beach race called Enduro du Touquet is held along the beach and through the dunes with some 1,000 motorbikes, Quad bikes and 250,000 spectators.^[4]

Cycling

Le Touquet has been host to four stages of the Tour de France. The resort first hosted a stage during the 1971 Tour de France, as the finish for Stage 6b, from Amiens, on 2 July. Following this, the resort hosted Stage 3 of the 1976 Tour de France, on 27 June. This was a 37 kilometres (23 mi) individual time trial which both started and finished at the resort. The following day, Le Touquet was the departure point for the fourth stage, to Bornem in Belgium. The 2014 Tour de France began Stage 4 at Le Touquet on 8 July, with the stage taking a 163.5 kilometres (101.6 mi) route to Lille Métropole.^[5]

Horse riding

Le Touquet has a great horse riding history. Most of the horse riding activity centres around the Centre Equestre located on Avenue de la Dune aux loups.

Tennis

The Le Touquet Tennis Club is the home of international tournaments. It has 33 courts (25 clay courts and 8 indoor courts), 2 club-houses, 1 central court with 900 places and 4 mini tennis courts.

Miscellaneous

Inland from the beach, hotels, a casino and a horse racing course, a wide range of sports, particularly golf are offered. The Casino de la forêt provided the inspiration of the casino of Royale-les-Eaux in Casino Royale.