The golf in Le Touquet is located at the heart of a pine forest surrounded by wild dunes.

Le Touquet’s museum.

Le Touquet offers splendid and very large beaches of fine sand.

View of the Canche’s bay (in French: baie de Canche) from the Le Touquet’s dunes.

The city is reputed to be the most elegant holiday resort of northern France, the playground of rich Parisians, with many luxury hotels.

The Westminster hotel in Le Touquet seduces for its charm from the 30′.

Since the mid-1990s, Le Touquet’s villas have become extremely fashionable amongst architecture lovers throughout Europe, rediscovering the “folie” of seaside architecture of both the Roaring Twenties and the Thirties. The most famous local architect is Louis Quetelart, whose style was named after him: Louis Quetelart Style.

The resort was created in 1876 by Hippolyte de Villemessant (1812-1879), founder and owner of the famous Paris newspaper, Le Figaro. Everything started in October 1874 when his friend Jean-Baptiste Daloz invited him in his property in Le Touquet for a hunting party. Impressed by the exceptional beauty of the setting, Hippolyte de Villemessant suggested his friend to create a holiday resort and to name it « Paris-Plage ». This is how Jean-Baptiste Daloz created, in 1882, the first housing development.

In April 1837, Jean-Baptiste Daloz bought a huge land and planted, from 1855 to 1882, maritime pines, poplar and alder trees on more than 800 hectares. It’s him who created the famous forest of Le Touquet, which stabilized the sand dunes. Today, these 800 hectares are still covered by this forest.

“Le Touquet” comes from a Picard word meaning ‘corner’, and was originally applied to the area of coast nearby. It became known as “Paris by the sea”, and strict building regulations encouraged the most talented architects to create imaginative and innovative developments.

In 1903, an Englishman bought the land, and set out to sell properties to the rich from across the English Channel. In the 1920s, Noël Coward and the “smart set” from England spent weekends here, and commissioned more outstanding villa designs echoing traditional and ultra-modern domestic styles. Today the town tourist office offers organised trails to see outstanding examples of 19th and 20th century domestic architecture, which are now preserved and protected. Sayaji Rao III Gaekwar of Baroda also owned a house.

The famous houses in Le Touquet facing the beach.

Events :

Each year take place in Le Touquet the following events:

• A collection of giant sand sculptures from May to September. The theme is different every time. For more information, click on this link: http://arras-france.com/sand-sculptures-in-le-touquet-city-northern-france/

• The ‘Enduropale‘, undoubtedly the most prestigious motor bike racing event in the world. The race takes place every year, in February. For 3 hours, more than 800 bike riders from all over the world race on an incredibly difficult track on the beaches of north France. For more information about the Enduropale, click on this link: http://arras-france.com/the-enduropale-in-le-touquet/

• A kite world Championship in Berck-sur-Mer, a nearby city. The 24th edition (10-18 April 2010) was won by a British six man team called ‘The Scratch Bunnies’. Click on this link to watch pictures: http://arras-france.com/the-city-of-berck-sur-mer-kite-world-championship/

The market hall in Le Touquet (picture above).

Le Touquet’s main road: the road Saint Jean (in French: rue Saint Jean).

For more information about Le Touquet, you can visit the official website: http://www.letouquet.com/

Sand sculptures inside the tents:

]]> http://arras-france.com/sand-sculptures-in-le-touquet-city-northern-france-part-iv/feed/ 0 http://arras-france.com/sand-sculptures-in-le-touquet-city-northern-france-part-iii/ http://arras-france.com/sand-sculptures-in-le-touquet-city-northern-france-part-iii/#comments Sat, 09 Feb 2008 21:40:58 +0000 Arras Guide http://arras-france.com/sand-sculptures-in-le-touquet-city-northern-france-part-iii/ For more information, click on this link:
http://arras-france.com/sand-sculptures-in-le-touquet-city-northern-france/

How much sand was used?

Over 80 trucks have carried more than 2000 tons of sand sculpture.

How many sculptors were at work and how lond did it take? What kinds of tools did they use?

They were 24 sculptors, men & women from all over the world, carefully selected among the very best sculptors in the market. They came from Belgium, Italy, Hungary, Malta, Canada, Russia, Ukraine, Poland and Mexico. It took about 15 days to complete the sculptures yet before that, another 15 days were necessary to complete the preparatory works of compacting the sand in their wooden forms.

The total time it takes to develop an event of this size is about 8 months of dedicated work, thorough planning and in-depth working out all the details of the theme.

The tools used to sculpt the sand are very much subject to individual preferences but as a rule, the sculptors used knives, spoons, trowels, spades, iron wires they bent into a multitude of shapes, palette knives and brushes. They even used little tubes to blow away sand parts when working on smaller details…

Each year, the city of “Le Touquet” presents a collection of sand sculptures from May to September.

This year (2007), the theme was Egypt. More than 200 sculptures were exposed from May 26th to Sept. 2nd.

• FAQs:

Where is the sand from and what is it?

The sand comes from a quarry in a village called Mont St. Guibert, about 30 km from Brussels (Belgium). It has special qualities: the grains are not round like beach sand but sharp & edged which means it bonds well ! It is also extremely fine, which is why the sculptors can do such a detailed work. Finally, there is the colour: a yellow-orange or a golden copper that gives a special dimension in the sunshine. The play of light and shadow makes it possible to take very fine pictures.

How does the sand hold together? Wind, rain or sun: what is the effect on a sand sculpture? How long can sand sculptures stand?

As the sand is sharp and bonds well, with certain compacting techniques, it gets quite firm and sticks together well, resulting in a firm block of sand. That is why they can withstand normal weather conditions. Severe rain can damage the sculptures, but as they are only made of sand, they can be restored quite easily. The sun dries out the sand with no negative effect on the sculptures. On the contrary, the more sunshine there is, the harder they become. Outside sculptures can stand for months. When they are in a tent, they could hold for ever.

This race was created in 1975 by Thierry Sabine. It was commonly called in French the “Enduro du Touquet” but was renamed as the “Enduropale” in 2006 because the organization of the race had changed drastically. In the past, the track was a lot more difficult because most of the race was happening in the sand dunes. Many people complained about the dunes’ deterioration, so the organizers were forced to modify the track. Today, the Enduropale only takes place on the beach and is about 15 km long (it’s more like a speed race now).

The day before the Enduropale, the French Bike Federation also organizes a quad race, which is also very popular.

The 2006 winner: Timotei Potisek (picture above)