Oye beach, polders, beach, mudflats and salt marshes

The surprisingly large 'coastal village' Oye-Plage lies 2 km from the beach.

The inhabitants of the small medieval farming village Oye-Plage were called 'ansériens'. The name refers to the geese that settled on the land won from the sea. The Latin "anser" means 'goose'.

Whoever looks around will discover a walking board on the village square and the yellow-marked Sentier de l'Ansérienne, a 17 km long hike that you mainly take as a guide in the morning. It leads you along a winding gravel path through small billiard-flat polder fields and meadows. The numerous 'watercourses' keep the wet land dry. On the southern horizon, the hills of the Boulonnais rise. After just over an hour of walking, you feel asphalt under your shoe sole again. You meander along a worn-out farm path by the wide watercourse Le Bandyck towards the coast.

In the hamlet Waldam, you leave the Sentier l'Ansérienne and search for Les Hemmes de Marck, a seaside hamlet of the inland village Marck. You can hang your backpack on a hook near the church in a typical French café: Au Colvert. The counter shows just under 10 km.

After food and drink, you walk along the 'Avenue de la Mer' - any comparison with our Flemish Zeelaan is surreal - towards the beach. At low tide, the surf lies on a bottomless horizon. It is an immensely wide plain covered with salt-loving seagrass. Immediately the start of a unique 4 km journey in 'les Dunes du Fort Vert'. With the help of the GPS (where are the bridges?), we make a winding trip through this beautiful marsh and mudflat area.

You exit the dune area onto a gravel road - the Digue Taaf - where the white-red of the GR 120 awaits you. Not for long, as a small new nature reserve “Le Fort Vert” calls for exploration.

You exit the small reserve onto the Taafdijk (GR 120) which you follow until you reach the Avenue de la Mer that ... once again sends you to the beach. A beach walk of about 5.5 km - this time towards the north - brings you to the southern boundary of the well-known nature reserve “Platier d’Oye” in the hamlet Les Huttes d’Oye. Here you leave the GR 120 and walk out of the hamlet towards Oye-Plage, our starting village, along a grassy (horse) path by the local Rue de la Mer.