Day 35 -- Lille and Dunkirk

Wednesday, 11 October 2023

It's a pretty short train ride from Lille to Dunkirk (or Dunkerque, in French), and there is a museum there about Operation Dynamo in World War II. I took the subway to the train station and then a train to Dunkirk. Had lunch at a French Taco place, and then walked to the museum.

The clerk at the museum took my money and then asked for my national ID. Oh crap! I leave my passport safe in the hotel when I travel locally. I hemmed and hawed and tried to figure out what to say when he asked again. "Your nationality?" Ahhh, he just needed to know where I was from for demographic survey reasons. Whew! "United States". Crisis averted. (He said he was going to guess Wales because of the Wales pin on my shirt.)

It is a nice museum. It's inside one of the remaining bunkers -- Bastion 32. Bastion 32 was the headquarters of the Allied and French forces during the Battle of Dunkirk and the associated evacuation efforts of Operation Dynamo.

Bastion 32, home of the Operation Dynamo Museum

After touring the museum and learning a lot about Operation Dynamo (I haven't seen the movie Dunkirk, but now I will) I wandered along the coast of the North Sea and then made my way back through town the the train station, and then back to Lille.

The dunes along the North Sea where the Allied and French forces awaited evacuation

The North Sea

More of the North Sea

The Saint Eloi bell tower

Leughenaer Tower, the oldest monument in Dunkirk, is the last remaining part of the 15th Century wall around the city 

 

The Grand Large Bridge

...doug