DAY 6: Lille to Calais (Les Secrets des Loges)

We didn't have to check out of our hotel until noon, so we decided to visit the Musee des Beaux Arts. What a wonderful art museum! So many glorious paintings! It wasn't very big so we managed to see it all comfortably in just over an hour. I took lots of photos to use as desktop backgrounds.

'The Walk of the Sisters' by Armand Gautier

After checking out of the hotel, we drove off to Calais. It actually was an easy drive this time, which meant we arrived a bit early to check into our B&B. We looked for a good restaurant for lunch and found a highly rated restaurant near the beach. The entrance was at the bottom of a very dilapidated looking block of apartments, so we weren't sure what we were getting in to. We walked into the building to find no mention of the restaurant in the foyer at all. There was a lift though, and one of the buttons inside said 'restaurant'. We went up two levels and the lift doors opened on to an extremely fancy restaurant with floor to ceiling windows looking out over Calais beach. It was quite an astonishing view! Waiters hovered around us and ushered us to a window seat. Very nice! The food and the service were both excellent.

I had butternut squash tagliatelle - which doesn't sound great, but was delicious. It was pasta in a creamy squash sauce sitting in half a baked squash. Very tasty. For dessert I had a nice pear and apple crumble. Jim had oysters and then scallop risotto (which he said wasn't very exciting). But the wine and the bread and butter were wonderful.

After lunch, we headed into Calais proper to our B&B. Our room is up two flights of stairs - with the second lot of stairs being extremely narrow and at an alarmingly steep angle. (Apparently the maid's room was up here.) The owner, who is very sweet, explained to us that each room has a theme - and ours is a nautical one, based on a famous Calais privateer. We have a bed head made of upright oars, lights in the form of hanging lanterns, a porthole window and more. The most alarming thing is the total see-through glass shower in the corner of the room. The owner explained that they discovered (to their surprise) that some people didn't like this so they could place a wooden screen around it, if we wished. They showed us the screen, which would only do a half-hearted job of covering anything up, so we declined. (You can see it leaning against the far door.) I think I can do without a shower for one night! The hand basin and sink are also in the middle of the room but, thankfully, the toilet is in an enclosed space.

'The Thomas Souville Room'

We decided go for a walk into Calais and so rugged up accordingly. This is the coldest place we have yet been! We walked all the way down to the port, which took about half an hour. We decided that Calais is a bit of a dump. I can't imagine you would come here unless you wanted to take the ferry to England.