Sangatte

French commune
nomcommune=Sangatte


x = 130
y = 17
région=Nord-Pas-de-Calais
département=Pas-de-Calais
arrondissement=Calais
canton=Calais-Nord-Ouest
insee=62774
cp=62231
maire=Guy Allemand
mandat=2001-2008
intercomm=Communauté d'agglomération du Calaisis
longitude=1.7575
latitude=50.9475
alt moy=4 m
alt mini=0 m
alt maxi=151 m
hectares=1,428
km²=14.28
sans=4,046
date-sans=1999
dens=283
date-dens=1999

Sangatte is a small harbour town and commune of the Pas-de-Calais "département", on the northern coast of France, bordering the English Channel.Like many placenames in French Flanders, the name is of Flemish (Dutch) origin (Zandgat) and means "gap in the sand".

Engineering

Sangatte became internationally famous because of the works for the Channel Tunnel and is the location for the tunnel's French cooling station, its British counterpart being at Samphire Hoe. In addition, it is the French end-point for the HVDC Cross-Channel, the connection between the UK and French electricity grids.

History

Sangatte also achieved notoriety as the location of a controversial refugee camp, colloquially dubbed Sans-gate (Lit. 'without gate') (see Channel Tunnel article for details).
Nicolas Sarkozy, then Minister of the Interior, ordered its closure. [Le Monde, 7 mai 2007: http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-823448,36-906438@51-823374@45-100,0.html] .

Blériot Plage

On the 25th July 1909, Louis Blériot was the first to fly across the English Channel, from the beach at Sangatte, to claim the prize offered by the Daily Mail. The crossing took 37 minutes in his aeroplane, Blériot XI, built in collaboration with Raymond Saulnier. It was powered by a 3 cylinder convert|25|hp engine.

Population

Miscellaneous

This is where the "Top Gear" presenters arrived in Jeremy Clarkson's amphibious "Nissank" car, after crossing the channel from Dover (Series 10 Episode 2).

Twinned With

*flagicon|ENG Sandgate, Kent, England.

ee also

Communes of the Pas-de-Calais département

References

External links

(All French language)
* [http://www.sangatte.com/ Unofficial town website]
* [http://www.ville-sangatte.fr Official website of the mayor of Sangatte Blériot-Plage]
* [http://www.ign.fr/affiche_rubrique.asp?rbr_id=1087&CommuneId=59856 Sangatte on the website of l'Institut Géographique National]
* [http://www.recensement.insee.fr/RP99/rp99/co_navigation.co_page?nivgeo=C&codgeo=62774&theme=ALL&typeprod=ALL&lang=FR&quelcas=LISTE Sangatte on the website of l'Insee]
* [http://www.quid.fr/communes.html?mode=query&req=Sangatte Sangatte on the website of Quid]
* [http://www.lion1906.com/Pages/ResultatLocalisation.php?InseeVille=620774 Position of Sangatte on a map of France]
* [http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?latlongtype=decimal&latitude=50.9475&longitude=1.7575&zoom=8 Plan of Sangatte on Mapquest]