Trip to St Omer (and French towns reviews)

Living in East Sussex means that I am within an hour of the channel tunnel. This makes a petite weekend very possible for me. In the last year I have been to Le Touquet and Lille, Le Touquet being my favourite. It has a certain up market ambience, beautiful scenery, gorgeous high-end boutiques and shops, no wonder it is referred to as 'the rich peoples playing ground'. We stayed in The Westminster which is a hotel and a tres chic one at that.

Lille in comparison, has the boutique shops, in fact a lot of shops and cafes. It seems less exclusive but is worth a visit as the canal is a focal point.

So this last weekend I went to St Omer. St Omer was about 40 minutes away which is very accessible. This trip was incredibly historic. The airfield was a major one in both world wars and has both a first world war (English built) hanger and a second world war (Polish built) hanger next to each other. A couple of years ago a a monument was erected by Air Chief Marshal Sir Brian Buridge and Lieutenant General Jean Patrick Gaviard.

Air Commodore Peter Dye, Personnel and Training Command RAF said the idea is:

The Royal Air Force are here to commemorate the efforts and achievements of the men and women of the British Air Services. We are also here to recognise the debt that we owe them, to reflect on the values of courage and self sacrifice — values that continue to be important to the Royal Air Force.

St Omer itself also oozes history. The catedral and train station are worth a visit. 

We went to the main square and ate dinner. Restaurants, cafes and patisseries were open until late and this was on a sunday. Many people, like myself, sat outside watching the sun go down. A different experience from the other two places but certainly an enjoyable one. 

Park St Omer

Beautiful manicured gardens 

 

Me in the flowers

Alexander in Brown cords and a shirt

And our hotel 

The Memorial 

Thank you for reading. My next trip is to Amien and En Fleur in a couple of weeks and Arras at Christmas as I've heard about the excellent Christmas Markets