Rally to Le Touquet, June 2025
Many people only remember Le Touquet as being the destination from Lydd airport in Kent for cars being transported to ‘The Continent’ by Silver City Airways in Bristol Freighters from 1954 to the early 1970s. Then the roll-on/roll-off ferries led to less demand. However, Le Touquet Paris-Plage has a far more exotic reputation, being a resort of the rich people of Paris in the earlier years of the 20th century. President Macron has a holiday home there.
The 2025 20hp rally was held there, staying Le Grand Hotel. Several cars took the Plymouth to Roscoff route and, meeting at the tiny village of Les Chéris near Avranches, with spirits high and hearts aglow we continued for two days in convoy through the country lanes of northern France stopping for lunch at delightful rural restaurants, to reach Le Touquet by Monday 16th June.
The Grand Hotel certainly is imposing. On the Tuesday, we lined up the cars in front of the equally grand Hotel Westminster near the centre of Le Touquet. Patrick Gonet from Le Touquet Automobiles de Collections who had organised the parade through town, and visit to the Westminster, was like a kid at Christmas proudly showing off eleven of our vehicles plus a couple of theirs.
While the cars drew the crowds and cameras, we were given a tour around the Hotel Westminster to take in the corridor lined with photos of grateful celebrities who had stayed there through the ages. Suite 007 would no doubt cost an arm and a leg to live like James Bond for a night. M. Gonet had then arranged for us to set off again in convoy through the centre of Le Touquet to the Jardin d’Ypres, a large park where we were able to leave our cars again lined up on display while we explored this chic seaside town.
Le Touquet and its surrounding area was a pleasant surprise. The town has retained a lot of trees and many of the boulevards are wide, lending it an air of affluence and wellbeing. The centre is full of cafés and dress shops; on Saturday mornings there is the market with a particularly attractive food section.
The following day we set off for Valloires Abbey, a 12th century Cistercian monastery and gardens near the village of Argoules. Throughout the Hundred Years War with England in the14th century, when it was used as a military hospital after the Battle of Crecy, and the Thirty Years War in Europe in the 17th century, the abbey was virtually in ruins. It was rebuilt in the 18th century and in 1880 it became an orphanage. It was sold again in 1906 and during WW1 it once more became a military hospital.
In 1922 a nun called Thérèse Papillon who had been awarded the Légion d'honneur and the Croix de Guerre for her work with injured soldiers in WW1, took over Valloires Abbey and turned it into a TB sanatorium for children. As a member of the French Resistance, she also hid Jewish children there to save them from the Nazis. Nowadays it is owned by the Association de Valloires and accommodates children with complex needs or behavioural problems. An excellent lunch was enjoyed at the Auberge du Gros Tilleul in the village followed by a leisurely stroll around the abbey gardens – an excuse for post lunch exercise.
All I knew about the battle of Agincourt was that in Shakespeare’s ‘Henry V’ the king spoke of closing walls up with English dead. We visited the excellent battle Museum at Azincourt.
Countless battles have taken place in this area of France, not just the Battles of Crecy and Agincourt. More recently in WW1 and WW2 of course the area was the scene of many battles including the notorious Battle of the Somme in 1916.
On the final Sunday a group took the route south along the Cote Picard to St Valéry-sur-Somme and yes, this pretty town also has strong connections with yet another battle, one in which England didn’t fare so well. It was from St Valéry that William the Conqueror set off to defeat England in 1066.It was something of a relief therefore to visit Chateau Hardelot on our penultimate day. This chateau was rebuilt in the 19th century, on the grounds of a 12th century one, and today is seen as a symbol of the strong bond between England and France. As such it houses the Cultural Centre for the Entente Cordiale between our two countries. After fighting each other for centuries, we got there in the end.
More competitiveness came into play one afternoon when several chaps in the group raced around a local go-kart track in vehicles very different to their Rolls and Bentleys.
We celebrated yet another truly enjoyable 20hp rally with dinner at a splendid fish restaurant in the centre of Le Touquet. The food was excellent which is why ‘Le Perard’ is said to be a favourite haunt of M. Macron.
