Blog :: Dieppe seen by Peter Avis

And don't forget the seaside | 07/08/2010

Seafront Dieppe is many things. So many in fact that we sometimes forget this is a place, too, for old-fashioned seaside fun. If you don’t know where the seaside is, Lou-Lou will take you there on his street train.

There’s fun at full blast now and until 22 August at the annual funfair at the eastern end of the seafront, with its 120 different stalls and attractions open daily until after midnight. New sophisticated swings and roundabouts have turned up this year, and some are delightfully scary.

A noisy show, to be sure, and out of deference to the neighbours (who are not unanimously fans of the event) the noise has to be kept below 60 decibels late at night.

Much quieter pleasures can be enjoyed towards the opposite end of the seafront, where, at ‘Lire sur la Plage’, you can borrow a book for free and read it sitting on a free chair: a recent invention of the local Seine Maritime council, introduced at all bigger resorts along the coast.

Strung along the seafront are the usual stalls offering the usual products: slippers and trinkets and souvenirs that will remind you of your name or of the resort you have visited. And, of course, there are chips and ice creams a-plenty.

For a copious salad, washed down with wine, beer, tea or water, try Le Club House on the seafront, which has wind barriers to protect you from the prevailing south-westerlies.

Nearby, too, is the minigolf where Lulu and Micheline offer a tasty snack in verdant surroundings which you might prefer to a round of golf.

Opposite the Mercure hotel, the swimming pool complex (which has its own restaurant) is an ultra-modern creation, with warmed sea water, jacuzzis and other health-giving pursuits on offer.

The seafront lawns – the most spacious of any French resort – welcome various attractions through the season, including dog shows, sporting events and classic-car parades. But no event is more spectacular than the biennial International Kite Festival. This unique celebration of wind power, gathering kite flyers from more than 40 countries, runs from 11 to 19 September in 2010.

While the warm weather lasts, why not end your day with a drink at the Bar-O-Mètre at the very western end of the seafront, watching the sun sink into the sea?

Oh, and by the way, we should mention that there is a beach in Dieppe, which offers sea to swim in and plenty of sand to run on at low tide. But those big pebbles are a pain. Winston Churchill found them so when he climbed up this beach after a swim in October 1911.

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