Le Touquet, France
| Le Touquet-Paris-Plage | ||
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| Commune | ||
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Dunes at the north of the beach
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 Le Touquet-Paris-Plage
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Location within Hauts-de-France region
Le Touquet-Paris-Plage
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| Coordinates: 50°31′07″N 1°35′42″E / 50.5186°N 1.595000°ECoordinates: 50°31′07″N 1°35′42″E / 50.5186°N 1.595000°E | ||
| Country | France | |
| Region | Hauts-de-France | |
| Department | Pas-de-Calais | |
| Arrondissement | Montreuil | |
| Canton | Étaples | |
| Intercommunality | Mer et Terres d'Opale | |
| Government | ||
| • Mayor (2014–2020) | Daniel Fasquelle | |
| Area1 | 15.31 km2 (5.91 sq mi) | |
| Population (2011)2 | 4,538 | |
| • Density | 300/km2 (770/sq mi) | |
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) | |
| • Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) | |
| INSEE/Postal code | 62826 /62520 | |
| Elevation | 0–42 m (0–138 ft) (avg. 5 m or 16 ft) |
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1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. 2Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once. |
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1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
Le Touquet-Paris-Plage (pronounced [lə tu.kɛː pa.ʁi plaʒ]), commonly referred to as Le Touquet, is a commune near Boulogne-sur-Mer, in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. It has a population of 5,355 but welcomes up to 250,000 people during the summer.
Le Touquet has a reputation as the most elegant holiday resort of northern France, the playground of rich Parisians, with many luxury hotels.
Since the mid-1990s, Le Touquet’s villas have become extremely fashionable amongst architecture lovers throughout Europe, rediscovering the “folie” of seaside architecture of both the Roaring Twenties and the 1930s. The most famous local architect is Louis Quetelart.
Hippolyte de Villemessant (1812–1879), founder and owner of the Paris newspaper, Le Figaro. At the time it was an area of wild sand dunes and forest - part of a hunting estate. Its name came from a Picard word meaning ‘corner’, and was originally applied to the area of coast nearby. It became known as “Paris by the sea”, and strict building regulations encouraged the most talented architects to create imaginative and innovative developments.
In 1902 Allen Stoneham and John Whitley bought the land, through their company Le Touquet Syndicate Ltd, and were instrumental in developing the town into a golf and gambling resort. In 1909, H. G. Wells and Amber Reeves fled to Le Touquet in an abortive elopement. The two returned to Britain after a number of weeks, though Amber later gave birth to Wells's daughter, Anna-Jane Blanco White, after the relationship ended.
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