Sangatte

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Sangatte is a small harbour town and commune of the Pas-de-Calais département, on the northern coast of France, bordering the English Channel. Like many placenames 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

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..

Blériot Plage

On the 25th July 1909, Louis Blériot was the first to fly across the English Channel, from the beach at Sangatte, 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 engine.

Population

Population Growth
1962	1968	1975	1982	1990	1999
3309	3340	3332	3199	3326	4046
Census count starting from 1962 : Population without double counting

Miscellaneous

This is where the Top Gear presenters arrived in Jeremy Clarkson's amphibious "Nissank" car, after crossing the channel from Dover (Series 10 Episode 2).

Twinned With

Sandgate, Kent, England.

References

External links

(All French language)

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Last updated on Monday February 04, 2008 at 22:00:46 PST (GMT -0800)
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