The Quai du Romerel is the long curving promenade that runs along the harbour front from the modern marina toward the lower town. It is lined with tall brick houses and a string of cafés and seafood restaurants, and at high tide the water comes right up to the wall — fishing boats and pleasure craft tied at the foot of the houses, gulls overhead, the salt smell of the bay.
At low tide the picture is completely different: the water retreats and exposes a half-kilometre of muddy sand, kept alive by the channels of the Somme as it finds its way out to sea. This is where to come at sunset, especially in spring and autumn when the light is long and the air is full of birds — terns, oystercatchers, godwits — feeding on the exposed mud.