Pointe aux Oie, Cape near Wimereux, northern France
Pointe aux Oies is a small cape on the Opal Coast near Wimereux in northern France, sitting where beach, dunes, and open sea meet. From the tip, you can look out over the Baie de la Slack, where dark flat rocks appear at low tide among the sand.
The site has been occupied since the Stone Age, and tools found here suggest people settled on this coast hundreds of thousands of years ago. The cape was later used as a Roman military camp, and in the 19th century Napoleon gathered troops along this coastline in preparation for a planned crossing to England.
The name Pointe aux Oies translates roughly as "Goose Point," a reference to the migratory birds that have long followed this stretch of coastline. Today, visitors come mostly on foot, walking the GR120 coastal path and watching small shore birds like the little ringed plover nest directly on the pebbles.
A parking area near the dunes gives easy access on foot to the tip of the cape along a coastal path. The ground is uneven, with pebbles, sand, and some steps along the way, so solid footwear makes the walk more comfortable.
At low tide after a storm, dark flat rocks appear on the beach that are not rocks at all, but the remains of a submerged forest that stood here around 3,000 to 4,000 years ago. What look like stone slabs are actually compressed peat layers and preserved roots of birch, oak, and alder trees swallowed by the rising sea.
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