Good golf within easy reach of Calais, France

[Mark_Rowlinson]

My wife and I may be able to get away for a few days (three nights) in late May. We would like to take the car on the ferry, put in the golf clubs and play some decent golf courses without the haughtiness of the better Paris clubs. Le Touquet and Hardelot come to mind. We could, of course, turn left on landing and return to some Belgian beauties. But if we kept it to Nord/Pas de Calais where else should we consider?

[Tom_Doak]

Mark:

A friend of mine strongly recommended a links course called Granville, which is on the coast, but I don't know how far south / west it is from Calais.

[Adam Lawrence]

Granville is at the base of the Cotentin peninsula, near Mont St Michel, at least four hours drive from Calais.

St Omer is okay, but I wouldn't pass up a round at Le Touquet or Hardelot to play there.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Tom, Thanks for the suggestion of Granville, but, as Adam says, it is a little too far from Calais - we'll probably stay in Montreuil sur Mer. This time I'll try to limit the driving to the golf ball rather than the car. Usually we ignore Nord/Pas de Calais as we hurtle through it trying to get to La Rochelle or Lyon in the day. We miss so much. Anyone know anything about Wimereux?

[Scott Warren]

Hardelot (Les Pins) and Le Touquet (La Mer) are both wonderful and not far from Boulogne.

You can get the ferry direct to Boulogne rather than going via Calais, but even driving from Calais, it isn't far.

[Adam Lawrence]

There's no ferry service to Boulogne any more - was withdrawn a couple of years ago.

[Greg Gilson]

Hardelot (Les Pins) and Le Touquet (La Mer) are both wonderful and not far from Boulogne.

Can't argue with this assessment. We played both (as well as La Foret) last July & thought they were great! Stayed at Westminster Hotel in Le Touquet which is also highly recomended.

[Scott Warren]

Adam - thanks for the update. In that case it's the drive from Calais - which is still only 40-50mins.

[Frank Pont]

Mark,

Go play Le Touquet La Mer (Colt), La Foret (Hutchinson) and Hardelot Les Pins (Simpson).
Stay at Westminster (chique and great food) or Le Manoir (very Brittish with a real pub in the hotel)
Patrice Boissonnas who also posts on this forum can get you set up.

The two other courses I would play in the area are Belle Dune, an interesting French designed dunes course just south of Touquet, and Wimereux (Campbell/Hutchinson)  an understated old links course just north of Boulogne.

Granville (Colt)  is too far away, and is not as nice as it used to be since the French put a road right through it and the father of DrH redesigned some of the holes to accomodate it. In recent times our fellow GCA'er Stuart Hllett has been renovating the bunkers to sod faced bunkers.