Wimereux

French commune
name= Wimereux
region=
departement=
arrondissement=
canton= Boulogne-sur-Mer-Nord-Ouest
insee=62893 |cp= 62930|maire= Francis Ruelle|mandat=2008-2014
intercomm=Communauté d'agglomération du Boulonnais
longitude= 1.6105555556|latitude= 50.7705555556
alt moy= |alt mini= 0 |alt maxi= 71
hectares= 771|km²= 7,71|sans=7493 |date-sans=1999|dens=972 |

Wimereux is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais "département" in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France.

Geography

A coastal town situated some convert|3|mi|km north of Boulogne, at the junction of the D233 and the D940 roads, on the banks of the river Wimereux. The river Slack forms the northern boundary of the commune, the English Channel the western. Farming and tourism are its principal activitiies.

History

At the Pointe-aux-Oies, dolmen can still be seen at a prehistoric site of the Stone Age, the first known settlement of Wimereux.
At the mouth of the river at Wimereux, Vauban built a coastal fort, whose ruins once showed at low-tide until the 1940s, when they disappeared completely.
Under the orders of Napoleon, a port was constructed here between 1803 and 1804. Wimereux took its name from the river which flows into the sea where the port was built.
In 1840, the future Napoleon III, first president (and last monarch) of France, landed at Pointe aux Oies.
The territory of Wimereux originally belonged to the commune of Wimille, but separated on May 28th, 1899. In the same year, the first radio link between France and England was established at Wimereux in April by Guglielmo Marconi and Édouard Branly.
The seaside development was started during the Second Empire resulting in a remarkable architectural ensemble of houses and buildings typical of the Belle Epoque which are still very well maintained to this day. Originally the secondary residence of wealthy families of Lille and Paris, Wimereux has become, in the last twenty years or so, a residential suburb of the town of Boulogne-sur-Mer. Wimereux also attracts Britons, Belgians and Russians who come to buy holiday homes or settle permanently.

Places of interest

* The church of the Immaculate Conception, dating from the 20th century.
* The 19th century chapel of Notre-Dame.
* The Villa ‘Les Mauriciens’
* The Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery.
* A golf course.

People with links to the town

*Alfred Mathieu Giard, zoologist and director of the marine research establishment at Wimereux.
*John McCrae, author of "In Flanders Fields", is buried in the CWGC cemetery.
*Jack Lang, politician and one-time government minister.
*Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier, aviation pioneer, crashed to his death from a balloon here.
*Maurice Boitel, artist, exhibited here in the 1980s and 1990s.
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Affiliations

Wimereux is twinned with the following cities:
* Herne Bay, Kent, England
* Schmallenberg, Germany.

See also

*Communes of the Pas-de-Calais department

External links

* [http://www.agglo-boulogne-cotedopale.fr/uk Tourism in Wimereux and the Boulonnais area] (in English)
* [http://www.ville-wimereux.fr Wimereux - official website] fr
* [http://www.wimereux.com/lang-english.htm Wimereux - Unofficial website] fr
* [http://DunesDuGolf.eu/actif.html Wimereux Guide on a Google Map]
* [http://www.cwgc.org/search/cemetery_details.aspx?cemetery=8200&mode=1 The CWGC cemetery]
* [http://www.quid.fr/communes.html?mode=detail&id=27369&req=Wimereux Wimereux on the Quid website] fr

Notes

*"This article is based on the original and the equivalent article from the French Wikipedia, consulted on September 10th 2008."