The Colonne de la Grande Armée & Terlincthun Valley
Eight kilometres north of Boulogne at Wimille stands a 53-metre marble column topped by a bronze Napoleon gazing towards England — the spot where the Emperor drilled his 180,000-strong Grande Armée for two years while waiting for a naval window to invade Britain that never came. Almost no tourists make it here, which means you get a monumental piece of Napoleonic history entirely to yourself.
The Column & Its Story
Napoleon ordered the column built in 1804 to celebrate what he fully expected would be a successful invasion of England; by the time it was completed in 1841 he had been dead for 20 years and the project had become a monument to imperial ambition and strategic failure.
The base is carved with the names of the regiments that camped on this plateau and the reliefs show scenes from the Boulogne camp; you can climb the internal staircase (169 steps) to a platform with views across the Liane valley and, on clear days, the English coast.
The Terlincthun Valley Walk
Below the column, the Terlincthun valley is a quiet chalk dry-valley with a waymarked 6 km loop through orchards, hedgerows and old farm tracks — entirely free, entirely empty and entirely lovely in spring when the apple blossom is out.
The valley floor was the actual campsite of the Grande Armée; interpretive panels in French and English explain where the cavalry, artillery and infantry were positioned across the fields you are walking through.
A small free car park sits at the base of the column; from there the valley walk begins immediately on a well-signed path.
Combining with a Local Lunch
The village of Wimille has a good traditional restaurant, L'Epicure, on the main square, which does a straightforward €16 lunch menu of terrine, roast chicken and tarte au sucre — exactly what you want after a morning of Napoleonic history and fresh Channel air.
The drive back into Boulogne along the D341 passes through the Liane valley and is genuinely pretty, with a 12th-century mill and a heronry visible from the road.
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