Dunkirk

Worth seeing in and around Dunkirk

8 places within 25 km that the world writes about, in the order of how widely: the ones a visitor has heard of first, then the ones only a local would name.

1. 01
   Stade Marcel Tribut

   The Stade Marcel-Tribut is a multi-purpose stadium in Dunkirk, France. It is the home ground of Ligue 2 club USL Dunkerque.

   900 m · association football stadium · Wikipedia
2. 02
   Canal de Bergues

   The Canal de Bergues is one of the oldest canals in Flanders, its course being shown on a map dating from the 9th century, connecting Bergues to the port of Dunkerque, in northern France. The town itself, heavily fortified by Vauban in the late 17th century, is the main attraction for boats, which moor in a dramatic location just outside the fortified walls.

   1.5 km · canal in France · Wikipedia
3. 03
   Église Saint-Éloi de Dunkerque

   The Church of Saint-Éloi, nicknamed the Cathedral of the Sands, is a Roman Catholic church in Dunkirk, France. It was listed as a Historic Monument in 1916, whereas the belfry of the original church across the street was listed in 1840.

   300 m · church building located in Nord, in France · Wikipedia
4. 04
   Dunkirk lighthouse

   Dunkirk Lighthouse is an automated first order port lighthouse, the highest of this type in France.

   1.5 km · lighthouse in Nord, France · Wikipedia
5. 05
   Fort des Dunes

   The Fort des Dunes, also known as Fort Leffrinckoucke and sometime Fort de l'Est, is located in the commune of Leffrinckoucke, France, about 6 kilometres east of Dunkirk. Built from 1878 to 1880, it is part of the Séré de Rivières system of fortifications that France built following the defeat of the Franco-Prussian War.

   5.1 km · museum in France · Wikipedia
6. 06
   Méridienne verte

   The Méridienne verte is a project devised by the architect Paul Chemetov for the 2000 celebration in France. It involved marking on the ground the Paris Meridian crossing France from North to South by planting trees along the whole line.

   3.1 km · project marking the ground of the Paris meridian across France · Wikipedia
7. 07
   Dunkirk Memorial

   The Dunkirk Memorial is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission memorial to the missing that commemorates 4,505 missing dead of the British Expeditionary Force, most of whom fell prior to and during the Battle of Dunkirk in 1939 and 1940, in the fall of France during the Second World War. Located in the town cemetery of Dunkirk, France, the design by Commission architect Philip Hepworth features memorial panels, a shrine in the form of a shelter, and an engraved glass pane by John Hutton.

   1.2 km · memorial located in Nord, in France · Wikipedia
8. 08
   Stade des Flandres

   Stade des Flandres is an indoor sporting arena located in Dunkerque, France.

   900 m · indoor sporting arena located in Dunkerque, France · Wikipedia

Ranked by the number of language editions of Wikipedia with an article on each, from Wikidata; the sentences are the openings of those articles, CC BY-SA 4.0.

What Wikivoyage says to see

1. 01
   Port Museum
2. 02
   Saint-Éloi

   2 Rue Clemenceau,.

3. 03
   Town Hall
4. 04
   Allies Memorial
5. 05
   Memorial and Town Cemetery
6. 06
   Malo-les-Bains

From Wikivoyage: Dunkirk, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.

Things to do

"Une Digue": take a walk on the Malo-les-Bains dike, between beach and "turn of the century" villas while eating an ice cream. On Saturday evening, take a stroll on the seawall: the atmosphere is in the bars. Football: USL Dunkerque were promoted in 2023 and play soccer in Ligue 2, the second tier. Their home ground Stade Marcel-Tribut (capacity 5000) is on the east river bank, about 1 km east of town centre.

From Wikivoyage: Dunkirk, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.

Where to eat

The cuisine of Dunkirk closely resembles Flemish cuisine; perhaps one of the best known dishes is coq à la bière – chicken in a creamy beer sauce. Another typical dish is the Potjevleesch, a dish of white meat (veal, pork, rabbit, chicken) cooked and preserved in jelly flavoured with juniper berries. All these are in the city centre:

1. 01
   Fresh Burritos Dunkerque

   14 ter Rue de l'Amiral Ronarc'h.

2. 02
   BCHEF

   1 Bd Alexandre III.

3. 03
   La Mie Câline

   28 Bd Alexandre III.

4. 04
   Le Wilson

   54 Rue du Président Wilson.

5. 05
   Les Coulisses

   43 Rue des Sœurs Blanches.

From Wikivoyage: Dunkirk, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.

Getting to Dunkirk

Airports

Ostend-Bruges (OST), 39 km · Lille (LIL), 73 km · Brussels (BRU), 148 km

Stations

Dunkirk evacuation, 2.6 km · Dunkirk railway station, 1.1 km

• Lesquin → Dunkirk

  71 km · quickest by road, 1h 33m · €8–11
  GuideToday
• Beauvais → Dunkirk

  180 km · quickest by road, 3h 26m · €25–36
  GuideToday
• Paris (Roissy-en-France, Val-d'Oise) → Dunkirk

  226 km · quickest by road, 3h 36m · €27–38
  GuideToday
• From anywhere

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Road and air are today’s quick answer; timetabled trains, buses and ferries load on the results page from the operators’ feeds.

No local-transport research exists yet for Dunkirk

Our researched notes are written from a sourced entry: every shared taxi, boat and village bus with its operator, its rule, its fare and the year we saw it, and what could not be confirmed. Nobody has done that work for Dunkirk. What is above is what we hold from open sources; nothing here pretends to be more.

If you know how people move in Dunkirk – the stand, the rule, the fare – tell us, and the note gets an entry.