Cap Gris Nez is a cape

Headlands and bays

Headlands and bays are two related features of the coastal environment.- Geology and geography :Headlands and bays are often found on the same coastline. A bay is surrounded by land on three sides, whereas a headland is surrounded by water on three sides. Headlands are characterized by high,...

 on the Côte d'Opale

Côte d'Opale

The French Opal Coast covers the seaside holiday area of the Pas de Calais, from Calais in the north to Berck in the south, but also extends to Le Crotoy...

 in the Pas-de-Calais département in northern France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

.

It is between Wissant

Wissant

Wissant is a seaside commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France.-Geography:...

 (Whitesand - originally Witzand) and Audresselles

Audresselles

Audresselles is a commune south of Cape Gris Nez in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France.The commune covers about 2000 acres of cultivated lands, two beaches, and seashore cliffs...

 (originally Auderzele), in the commune of Audinghen

Audinghen

Audinghen is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France.-Geography:A farming commune, comprising several hamlets, some north of Boulogne, at the junction of the D940 and the D191 roads...

 (Odingham).

The cliffs of the Cap are the closest point of France to England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 - 34 km (21.1 mi) from their English counterparts at Dover

Dover

Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...

. Smothered in sea pink

Armeria

Armeria is the botanical name for a genus of flowering plants. These plants are sometimes known as "thrift" or as the "sea pinks" as they are often found on coastlines...

s and thrift

Armeria maritima

Armeria maritima is the botanical name for a species of flowering plant.It is a popular garden flower, known by several common names, including thrift, sea thrift, and sea pink. The plant has been distributed worldwide as a garden and cut flower...

, the cliffs are a perfect vantage point to see hundreds of ships from oil tankers to little fishing trawlers plying the waters below. On a clear day, the emblematic white cliffs of Dover

White cliffs of Dover

The White Cliffs of Dover are cliffs which form part of the British coastline facing the Strait of Dover and France. The cliffs are part of the North Downs formation. The cliff face, which reaches up to , owes its striking façade to its composition of chalk accentuated by streaks of black flint...

 on the English shore can be seen.

Geology

The cliffs of Cap Gris Nez are made of sandstone

Sandstone

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...

, clay

Clay

Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...

 and chalk

Chalk

Chalk is a soft, white, porous sedimentary rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite. Calcite is calcium carbonate or CaCO3. It forms under reasonably deep marine conditions from the gradual accumulation of minute calcite plates shed from micro-organisms called coccolithophores....

. They are mainly grey which gives the cape its name ('gris nez' means 'grey nose' in French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

. It is also a good place to collect fossils, which are mainly from the Jurassic period. One can find bivalves, gastropods and wood. In the sandstone layers with small pebbles, you can find teeth of fish and reptiles. Sometimes larger ammonites are found in the sandstones.

History

The proximity of the cape to England led to the frequent destruction of the nearby village of Audinghen in wars between England and France. On the top of the cliff are the ruins of an English fortress, built by Henry VIII

Henry VIII of England

Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

 at the beginning of the 16th century. The English called the fort 'Blackness'. Napoleon stopped at the cape on 1 July 1803 whilst making an inspection of the coast around Boulogne-sur-Mer

Boulogne-sur-Mer

-Road:* Metropolitan bus services are operated by the TCRB* Coach services to Calais and Dunkerque* A16 motorway-Rail:* The main railway station is Gare de Boulogne-Ville and located in the south of the city....

 and of his invasion troops

Napoleon's invasion of England

Napoleon's planned invasion of the United Kingdom at the start of the War of the Third Coalition, although never carried out, was a major influence on British naval strategy and the fortification of the coast of south-east England. French attempts to invade Ireland in order to destabilise the...

. He then envisioned setting up a cross-Channel optical telegraph, with a semaphore on the cape. The first semaphore of this line was installed on the cape in 1805, without waiting for the planned French invasion of England. On July 18, 1805, a memorable naval battle took place off the cape. A British flotilla with strong numerical superiority pursued Dutch ships that were following the coast and trying to get back into harbour of Ambleteuse

Ambleteuse

Ambleteuse is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France.-History:Ambleteuse began as a hamlet of a few huts in the middle of the dunes, from which the derisory name of “carcahuttes" was once given to its inhabitants by their neighbors at Audresselles...

. Expecting an attack of this type, Napoleon had stationed a battery of 300 guns on the cape, and a barrage from this force obliged the British vessels to withdraw.

The corvette

Corvette

A corvette is a small, maneuverable, lightly armed warship, originally smaller than a frigate and larger than a coastal patrol craft or fast attack craft , although many recent designs resemble frigates in size and role...

 captain Ducuing

Gabriel Auguste Ferdinand Ducuing

Commandant Gabriel Auguste Ferdinand Ducuing was an officer in the French Navy of the First and Second World Wars.-Early life:...

 and his men died on May 25, 1940 while defending the semaphore, and a commemorative stela was later placed on the cape to commemorate this sacrifice. During the Second World War, the Germans built a blockhouse

Blockhouse

In military science, a blockhouse is a small, isolated fort in the form of a single building. It serves as a defensive strong point against any enemy that does not possess siege equipment or, in modern times, artillery...

 inside the Tudor ruins. The locality has a cluster of World War II bunkers, part of the Atlantic Wall

Atlantic Wall

The Atlantic Wall was an extensive system of coastal fortifications built by Nazi Germany between 1942 and 1944 along the western coast of Europe as a defense against an anticipated Allied invasion of the mainland continent from Great Britain.-History:On March 23, 1942 Führer Directive Number 40...

 intended to rebuff the anticipated allied invasion. There are heavy artillery sites - Batterie Grosser Kurfürst, formerly with three 170 millimetre guns and Batterie Todt, with four 380 mm guns. These covered the approaches to both Calais and Boulogne

Boulogne-sur-Mer

-Road:* Metropolitan bus services are operated by the TCRB* Coach services to Calais and Dunkerque* A16 motorway-Rail:* The main railway station is Gare de Boulogne-Ville and located in the south of the city....

 and they were protected by massive concrete blockhouses and other lesser defensive sites. One of the Batterie Todt blockhouses now houses the Atlantic Wall Museum.

The area was liberated by elements of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division

3rd Canadian Infantry Division

The Canadian 3rd Infantry Division was an infantry division of the Canadian Army from 1940 to c.1945.- History :The formation of the division was authorized on 17 May 1940...

in September 1944.