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Le Boulonnais

Ningles beach

A cove that only appears at low tide, at the end of the customs officers' path

The stream tumbling over the rocks at the Ningles cove
Photo: Fabienne Lavieville

The essentials

Water quality

How this rating is calculated

The regional health agency samples the water several times a season and measures two faecal bacteria: Escherichia coli and intestinal enterococci.

The rating isn’t based on a single sample, but on all the results from the last four seasons. It’s recalculated every year and places the beach into one of four levels, from poor to excellent, based on the share of results that exceed European thresholds.

The upshot: a beach rated excellent can be closed on a stormy day, and a poorly rated beach can have perfect water today. The rating shows the trend, not today’s weather.

Not classified

Monitored bathing

Health monitoring and supervision

This is the period declared by the local council during which the regional health agency tests the water.

This isn’t the period of lifeguard supervision, which is down to the local council and is often shorter. Check with the town hall before relying on it.

Not declared
The sand
Galets au pied des falaises à marée haute, sable fin à marée basse
Dogs
Check with the town hall

Ningles beach: what you need to know

Between Le Portel and Équihen-Plage, the Ningles cove is almost non-existent at high tide: only dark pebbles at the foot of the cliffs poke above the waves. The charm comes out at low tide, when a fine sand beach is revealed and the stream tumbles over the rocks before running into the sea.

It's only reachable on foot, which is probably what has kept it under the radar. You leave the car at the Portel lighthouse car park or at the Crevasse cove car park in Équihen, then take the customs officers' path down: a waymarked but steep track, with steps and slippery rocks.

The rocky area allows for shellfish gathering at low tide, mussels and winkles included.

  • On foot only
  • Wild
  • Shellfish gathering
  • Customs officers' path

Can you swim in Outreau?

This beach isn’t an officially monitored bathing site. It doesn’t appear in the bathing season reporting: the regional health agency doesn’t sample water there, so it has no monitoring code, no health rating and no declared control period.

That doesn’t mean swimming is banned, but nothing is monitored there — neither the water nor the swimmers. Worth bearing in mind with children, especially as access is on foot and the tide comes in fast at the foot of the cliffs.

The nearest monitored beaches are listed below, with their rating.

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    After the beach

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    In the same area

    The other beaches around Boulogne-sur-Mer