Sangatte

Sangatte
Sangatte
Location within Nord-Pas-de-Calais region Sangatte
Coordinates:
Country	France
Region	Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardy
Department	Pas-de-Calais
Arrondissement	Calais
Canton	Calais-Nord-Ouest
Intercommunality	Calaisis
Government
• Mayor (2014-2020)	Guy Allemand
Area1	14.28 km2 (5.51 sq mi)
Population (2012)2	4,719
• Density	330/km2 (860/sq mi)
INSEE/Postal code	62774 / 62231
Elevation	0–151 m (0–495 ft) (avg. 4 m or 13 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. 2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Sangatte

Sangatte is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department on the northern coast of France on the English Channel.

Like many place names in French Flanders, the name is of Flemish (Dutch) origin (Zandgat) and means "gap in the sand".

Engineering

Sangatte became internationally famous because of the works for the Channel Tunnel and is the location for the tunnel's French cooling station, its British counterpart being at Samphire Hoe. In addition, it is the French end-point for the HVDC Cross-Channel, the connection between the UK and French electricity grids.

History

Pioneering Cross-Channel flight

'Blériot-Plage' is named to commemorate Louis Blériot who, on the July 25, 1909, was the first person to fly across the English Channel. He flew from the beach at Sangatte, to the cliffs at Dover to claim the prize offered by the Daily Mail. The crossing took 37 minutes in his aeroplane, Blériot XI, built in collaboration with Raymond Saulnier. It was powered by a 3 cylinder 25 horsepower (19 kW) engine.

At the western end of the beach a statue of Hubert Latham overlooks the sea. Latham was another pioneering cross-channel pilot whose earlier attempt on July 19, failed.

Refugee camp

Sangatte also achieved notoriety as the location of a controversial refugee camp, colloquially dubbed Sans-gate (Lit. 'without gate') (see Channel Tunnel article for details). Nicolas Sarkozy, then Minister of the Interior, ordered its closure. There were riots in 2001 and 2002, the year the camp closed.

Population

Population history

1962	1968	1975	1982	1990	1999	2006	2012
3309	3340	3332	3199	3326	4046	4591	4719
Census count starting in 1962: Population without duplicates

Twin towns

• Sandgate, Kent, England, UK.

In popular culture

In the BBC Two show Top Gear, the three presenters Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May crossed the Channel in an amphibious Nissan Navara and instead of finishing at Calais after leaving Dover, they ended up 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) along the coast in Sangatte.

See also

• Chinese Labour Corps
• Communes of the Pas-de-Calais département

References

• INSEE commune file

External links

(All French language)

• Unofficial town website
• Official website of the mayor of Sangatte Blériot-Plage
• Sangatte on the website of Quid
• Position of Sangatte on a map of France
• Plan of Sangatte on Mapquest