The best running trails around Rang-Du-Fliers

Very surprising and worth seeing

The seals are there from two hours before low tide until two hours after. It's practically the only place to see them up close without disturbing them. They feel protected by the Authie River, which flows between you and them. Elsewhere, you must maintain a distance of 300 meters.

Those who love nature and seals should come here during low tide. It's worth it. Those who want to find out about tide times will find them here: https://de.tideschart.com/France/Hauts--de--France/Pas--de--Calais/Berck--Plage/

Halfway through the last century, Berck-plage was nothing more than a desert of shifting dunes, lifeless. 2 km away was a town of 2000 inhabitants, distant descendants of fishermen whose coastal village was inevitably “driven inland” over the centuries, by a slow process of siltation and silting.

Berck-sur-Mer is full of treasures, in particular the 90 religious monuments that you can come across as you walk through the town. Calvaries, chapels, oratories, niches, statues... they are part of this religious landscape that everyone agrees must be preserved. The origins of this monumental religious heritage lie in the long religious tradition linked to the maritime world and later to the hospital development of the town. Very pious fishermen erected monuments to protect or commemorate tragedies that had occurred at sea (shipwrecks, disappearances, rescues). These monuments have become places of memory and contemplation for families. The multitude of these monuments were also built in honour of religious festivals and traditions, such as St. John, the blessing of boats and prayer on the nets. At the time of the development of the hospital, these calvaries and chapels were installed by families confronted with illness.

Berck-sur-Mer and the sea are inseparable; the churches of Notre-Dame-des-Sables and Saint Jean-Baptiste bear witness to this; the nave of one was made by shipwrights, the bell tower of the other was the old lighthouse of the town. The church of Berck Ville was for a long time the place of worship of the local navy, while that of Berck Beach was that of the sick and swimmers.

A few hundred meters from the Berck lighthouse, the Phoques beach is home to colonies of grey seals and harbour seals. You can observe them at low tide, when the seals come to rest on the fine sandbanks.

The magnificent beach of Berck-sur-Mer stretches for nearly 12 kilometers, going from the naturist beach in the north to Authie Bay in the south. With a bit of luck you might spot seals off the beach. Colonies were established on different sites on the Opal Coast.