Every design for Calais

Calais is known above all as the crossing point to England: the ferry port, the Channel Tunnel to Folkestone, and on a clear day the White Cliffs of Dover visible across the narrowest stretch of the Channel. For the people of Calais, though, it is also a fishing port, a lace town and a place with its own daily rhythm, away from the traffic heading for the boats.

Les Bourgeois de Calais and the Citadelle de Calais anchor the town's long memory, from English rule after 1347 to a Second World War that left it virtually razed. The old quarter, Calais-Nord, stands on an artificial island ringed by canals and harbours, with the Place d'Armes and its watch-tower, once used as a lighthouse, at its centre. To the south lies Saint-Pierre, the modern town, with its town hall and belfry. Lace still employs people here, a craft told at the Cité Internationale de la Dentelle et de la Mode, and out on the coast Calais Plage and the Fort Risban mark the edge of the sea.

For those who grew up here, the map is a familiar sketch: canals around the old town, the harbour, the beach, and England on the horizon.