Wet fish & Napoleon's hat

We love Boulogne, it's official.  The marina is friendly (perhaps they appreciated our brave attempt at French on the VHF), facilities excellent, wifi & internet PC & elec free. The town a little reminiscent of Ramsgate around the port, slightly run down but still bravely functioning, with new facilities from EU money. 

On the Quay opposite the marina is a row of 20 stalls where the wives of the fishermen sell the fish and crustaceans caught last night (see pic) - just exactly as Tom Cunliffe describes in his most excellent Shell Channel Pilot. 

As you walk inland up hill the shops and restaurants appear, and the old walled town at the top, only 15 mins walk, is a delight of quiet streets, old shuttered houses and small cafes. 

We rewarded ourselves with a slap-up Menu de Mer lunch in the square, a leisurely 2hr feast after which there was much thought of sleep, but no we must go onwards. 

At the top right of the old town is the chateau (other pic), housing an amazing subterranean passage displaying foundation stones going back to the Romans, and a shiny new museum where we discovered a hat and large diamond ring belonging to Napoleon - literally discovered, because the leaflet on the museum makes no mention of the ring, which is splendid, and only passing reference to the hat. 

We fell back into the boat late afternoon with excellent timing, assisted by forecast from xcweather.com, because the rain then descended big time.  We expect a bit of a storm up the channel tonight and tomorrow morning, so plenty of time for reading books ... oops, I mean doing jobs around the boat. Zzzzzz