Calais: Rodin's Burghers, the Lace Museum and the Lighthouse of 271 Steps
Hauts-de-France, France
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Burgher of Calais
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200
XP
+100 France
= 300 total
1 day
Calais: Rodin's Burghers, the Lace Museum and the Lighthouse of 271 Steps
200 + 100 XP
In front of Calais town hall stands the first bronze of Rodin's Burghers of Calais, unveiled on 3 June 1895. It shows six men of the town who, after eleven months of siege, walked out to Edward III in August 1347 barefoot in their shirts with ropes round their necks and the keys of the town in their hands, expecting to be executed; Froissart, who told the story, was writing at the English court, and documents of Edward III found in London in the 18th century show Eustache de Saint-Pierre still alive in Calais and in the king's favour, so the heroism is as much Froissart's and Rodin's making as history's. The Cité internationale de la dentelle et de la mode, inaugurated on 11 June 2009 in the Boulart lace factory, which worked until 2000, tells the story of the town's lace industry, and the lighthouse of 1848 has 271 steps to its lantern.
Required Activities
1
of 4
Walk right round Rodin's Burghers on the place du Soldat Inconnu and tell the six apart by what they are doing: Jean d'Aire upright with the keys of the town clenched in both hands, Andrieu d'Andres with his head buried in his hands, and Jean de Fiennes, the youngest, bare-chested with his arms open
2
of 4
At the Cité de la dentelle on the quai du Commerce, time your visit for a demonstration and watch a Leavers loom actually running — the machine type that came over from England to Calais in 1816 and made the town the lace capital — then follow the upstairs room that takes one length of lace from the first sketch to the shop
3
of 4
Climb the 271 steps of the Calais lighthouse, and from the lantern gallery pick out the 13th-century Tour du Guet in the streets below — the tower that burned a fire on its top for sailors until this lighthouse took the job over in 1848
4
of 4
Look up at the belfry of the town hall behind the Burghers, on the UNESCO list since 2005, and find the joins in a building begun in 1911, stopped by the war in 1914 and only finished in 1925 — built in reinforced concrete behind its Flemish brick
Walk right round Rodin's Burghers on the place du Soldat Inconnu and tell the six apart by what they are doing: Jean d'Aire upright with the keys of the town clenched in both hands, Andrieu d'Andres with his head buried in his hands, and Jean de Fiennes, the youngest, bare-chested with his arms open
At the Cité de la dentelle on the quai du Commerce, time your visit for a demonstration and watch a Leavers loom actually running — the machine type that came over from England to Calais in 1816 and made the town the lace capital — then follow the upstairs room that takes one length of lace from the first sketch to the shop
Climb the 271 steps of the Calais lighthouse, and from the lantern gallery pick out the 13th-century Tour du Guet in the streets below — the tower that burned a fire on its top for sailors until this lighthouse took the job over in 1848
Look up at the belfry of the town hall behind the Burghers, on the UNESCO list since 2005, and find the joins in a building begun in 1911, stopped by the war in 1914 and only finished in 1925 — built in reinforced concrete behind its Flemish brick
Before you go
The lighthouse is open daily from June to September, 10.00–12.00 and 14.00–18.00, but outside the summer and the school holidays only on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, 10.00–12.00 and 14.00–17.30. The last climb is 30 minutes before the midday closing and 45 minutes before the evening one, and the 271 steps need reasonable mobility.
Outside June to September and the school holidays the lighthouse only opens on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, 10am to midday and 2pm to 5.30pm, with the last climb 45 minutes before it shuts — so a winter visit to Calais has to fall on one of those three days to get the 271 steps. The lace museum closes every Tuesday and on 1 May, 24, 25 and 31 December and 1 January, and in the winter half it shuts at 5pm with the desk closing at 4pm. Rodin's Burghers stand outside the town hall and cost nothing at any hour.
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Challenge Location
XP Breakdown
Challenge XP
200 XP
France country bonus
+100 XP
Potential total
300 XP
Country bonus earned on completion of your first challenge in France.
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