Булонь-сюр-Мер

Buy

The Market - Wednesdays and Saturdays. The main shopping streets are around Rue Adolphe Thiers, in the New Town, 5 blocks east of the harbour. There is one large supermarket in the town (a Carrefour) on the Station Road. Boulogne has two hypermarkets, an Auchan in the St Martin suburb (at the Boulogne end of the N41, Junction 31 of the A16), and, on the other side of town, an E.Leclerc in the Outreau suburb. Both are surrounded by other large out of town style shops. The largest shopping centre in the area, the Cite D'Europe at the Channel Tunnel, is 20 minutes drive away.

Eat

Most of the restaurants are in and around the Place Dalton in the New Town, though there are a few up in the Old Town as well.

Drink

There are many excellent bars in both the Old and New Towns.

Sleep

There's a small Ibis in the City Centre, and most of the rest of the hotels are small privately owned establishments out towards the beach.

There is also a youth hostel (auberge de jeunesse) opposite the main station (Gare de Boulogne), which is open year round and offers accommodation for around €16.

Go next

Just outside of town is the Column of the Grande Armée, a park where a (somewhat presumptive) monument commemorates Napeleon's successful invasion of England.

Le Portel, Equihen, Hardelot and Le Touquet are all sought after by the locals of Boulogne for better beaches, and all are within an hour's drive southbound on the D940. Montreuil is about an hour's drive on the N1 Saint-Omer is also about an hour's drive on the N41. The Cote D'Opale itself in either direction on the D940 including the beauty spots of Cap Griz-Nez and Cap Blanc-Nez (north of Boulogne). Calais, Dunkirk and, eventually, the Belgian Border are 30 min, 1 hr and 1 hr 15 min respectively on the A16. Also Paris, Lille and Amiens are directly accessibly by rail.